Responses to Maximal Strength Training in Different Age and Gender Groups.

Hans Torvild Kittilsen,Iver Nicolaisen,Eva Maria Støa,Baard Ingegerdsson Freberg,Solfrid Bratland-Sanda,Øyvind Støren,Jan Helgerud,Sannija Goleva-Fjellet,Mona Sæbø,Eivind Wang

doi:10.3389/fphys.2021.636972

Abstract

PurposeThe present study aimed to investigate the potential impact of age, gender, baseline strength, and selected candidate polymorphisms on maximal strength training (MST) adaptations.MethodsA total of 49 subjects (22 men and 27 women) aged 20–76 years, divided into five age groups, completed an 8 weeks MST intervention. Each MST session consisted of 4 sets with 4 repetitions at ∼85–90% of one-repetition maximum (1RM) intensity in leg-press, three times per week. 1RM was tested pre and post the intervention and blood samples were drawn to genotype candidate polymorphisms ACE I/D (rs1799752), ACTN3 R577X (rs1815739), and PPARGC1A Gly482Ser (rs8192678).ResultsAll age groups increased leg-press 1RM (p < 0.01), with a mean improvement of 24.2 ± 14.0%. There were no differences in improvements between the five age groups or between male and female participants, and there were no non-responders. Baseline strength status did not correlate with 1RM improvements. PPARGC1A rs8192678 T allele carriers had a 15% higher age- and gender corrected baseline 1RM than the CC genotype (p < 0.05). C allele carriers improved 1RM (%) by 34.2% more than homozygotes for the T allele (p < 0.05).ConclusionTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report improvement in leg-press maximal strength regardless of gender, baseline strength status in all age groups. The present study is also first to demonstrate an association between the PPARGC1A rs8192678 and maximal strength and its trainability in a moderately trained cohort. MST may be beneficial for good health and performance of all healthy individuals.

Highlights

Muscle strength is important for everyday functionality in all age groups
Baseline 1RM corrected for age, gender and body mass scaled to the power of 0.67 was not significantly different between any of the age groups (Table 2)
There was a mean improvement in 1RM leg-press of 24.2 ± 14.0% (p < 0.01), with no participants having less than 7% improvement

Summary

Introduction

Muscle strength is important for everyday functionality in all age groups. From the age of approximately 40, maximal muscle strength decreases steadily (Lindle et al, 1997; Lambert and Evans, 2002; Petrella et al, 2005; Distefano and Goodpaster, 2018), and the decrease seems to accelerate from the age of 50 to 70 (Unhjem et al, 2016). Some of the most extensively studied polymorphisms in association with various aspects of exercise genetics are ACE I/D (rs1799752), ACTN3 R577X (rs1815739), and PPARGC1A Gly482Ser (rs8192678) (Ahmetov and Fedotovskaya, 2015) These polymorphisms were selected based on previous research showing potential associations with baseline muscle strength (Erskine et al, 2014; Wilson et al, 2019) and/or strength trainability (Pickering and Kiely, 2017; Seto et al, 2019; Alvarez-Romero et al, 2020), and/or strength/power athlete status (Gineviciene et al, 2016; Tharabenjasin et al, 2019b; Wilson et al, 2019; Moreland et al, 2020). If any, have investigated the effects of this polymorphism on muscle strength in a healthy adult population

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion