The effect of concurrent exercises on testosterone to cortisol ratio in nonathlete

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1 Available online at Annals of Biological Research, 2012, 3 (6): ( ISSN CODEN (USA): ABRNBW The effect of concurrent exercises on testosterone to cortisol ratio in nonathlete males Hamzeh Moradi, Ramin Amir Sasan and Vahid Sari Sarraf Department of Physical Education, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran _ ABSTRACT The Purpose of this study was to consider concurrent endurance- resistance versus resistance-endurance on Testosterone /Cortisol ratio in non-athlete males. Sixteen healthy men in two homogenous groups of enduranceresistance group (E-R) and resistance - endurance group (R-E) voluntarily participated in this study. Blood samples were taken 5 minutes before and one hour after the exercise protocols. The plasma was examined for Testosterone and Cortisol. At first, the normality of the collected data were confirmed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and then data were analyzed by the paired and independent samples t test at a p The results suggest that change before and after Testosterone in first group and changes before and after Cortisol and Testosterone/ Cortisol ratio in both groups showed significant changes. On other hand, no significant difference between two groups in the indicators were observed. Results show that both activities have made changes in hormonal indicators, but (resistance - endurance) group compared with (endurance-resistance) had greater decrease and percentage in (increase of Cortisol & decrease in Testosterone and Testosterone/ Cortisol ratio). Keywords: concurrent exercise, Testosterone / Cortisol ratio, Non-Athlete Males. _ INTRODUCTION Strength and endurance training have positive effects on individuals health. So, many studies have reported the beneficial effects of endurance exercises on increasing cardiovascular and muscle endurance capacity and resistance training on increasing strength and muscle mass in individual athlete and non-athletes [3,5,14,24]. Therefore according to positive effects of these exercise, several studies reported concurrent endurance-resistance exercise,more useful for increasing fitness and health of athlete and non-athlete individuals.then doing on of these exercise alone [2,9,18,20,24]. Research on the impact of the sequence of concurrent exercise performance on development of strength and endurance is still questionable. So that, if endurance exercise be done at first probably it will lead to a slowing muscle contraction and if resistance training be done at first, how excess post exercise oxygen consomption Will change? Resarchers attribute answering to these questions to the levels of acute and chronic adaptations [2,19,24]. Existing studies have shown that concurrent exercises compared to doing each of endurance or resistance exercises, cause interference in strength an endurance developement and show different results [17,18]. Since with the increase in intensity of exercise, the metabolic rate resis, therfore hormonal system as a factor involved in physiological processes of the body,plays an importent rol in growth, maturation and also short term and long term responses to resistance and endurance exercises [4,10,24].So that two hormones in response to skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise, are Testosterone and Cortisol that respectively act as indicators of anabolism and catabolism 2776

2 [8,10,24]. Testosterone is a 19-carbon steroid hormone that its metabolism takes place in the liver, testis, and prostate. Testosterone has a crucial role in maintaining muscle and bone mass, and brain function,olso through protein synthesis it increases the size and number of muscle fibers [9,19,22,24]. Cortisol is also one of the main steroid hormones playing a remarkable role in the adjustment and regulation of cardiovascular, immunological, homeostasis, and metabolic functions. Also it will accelerate the gluconeogenesis, lipogenesis and proteolysis in the body. Researchers have reported that, factors such as exercise intensity (more than 75 percent of consumed oxygen), the volume change of plasma and blood, the temperature variation of the environment, and stress-induced activity influences the density of serum Cortisol in athletes [9,24]. Nevertheless, there is a large variety of hormone responses to endurance and resistance exercises in the literature. Generally, endurance exercises lead to Testosterone increase in both phases of exercises and immediately after the exercise which starts to fall during recovery phase [3,6,14].In contrast, endurance exercise usually lead to large increase in Cortisol concentration aftrer exercise and just like Testosterone, its amount decrease during the recovery period.therefore it is likely that cellular and hormonal damage due to order of implementation of these exercise have affected the changes [3,14]. So as, Deakin indicated that muscular damages caused by combined exercise may be due to the fatigueless because of the duration of such exercise. They also showed that muscular damage caused by strength training is more than endurance exercise [9,23]. On the other hand, most studies showed that endurance exercise will also cause cellular and muscular damages. So that, they have stated the endurance training as the main factor of muscular damage in combined exercise [7,9,24]. Nevertheless, according to importance and novelty of the subject, there is no single theory in this regard.so, this study intends to examine effects of combined endurance resistance exercise against combined resistance endurance exercise on Testosterone/Cortisol ratio in non-athlete males. MATERIALS AND METHODS The initial sample of this study was male students of 19 to 23 year-old age of Tabriz University. A week prior to the study, among 60 non-athlete volunteer students, 16 students were chosen through participating in a call for research respondents and getting familiar with research details as the final subjects. Furthermore, after elaboration of the study details to the participants and assuring the confidentiality of their records, all subjects were asked to read the agreement and confirm the research terms and conditions before selection stage. The selection requirements of the subjects included absence of drug or supplement use and smoking, individual health, no record of blood disease or illnesses affecting immunity system, lack of infection and allergic conditions, and relative familiarity with weight training. Then, for three repeated days from 10 to 12 in the morning, the following tests were taken from the subjects in order to establish homogeneity: shuttle run test to estimate VO 2max, prediction of one repetition maximum (1RM) (in bench press, knee flexion and extension, lat pull-down, and arm exercises), estimation of body fat percentage (using 3Sites Jackson Formula), and body mass index. After assuring homogeneity among subjects, they were randomly assigned into two groups of endurance-resistance (age=23±2, height=173±7.8 cm, weight=70.9±6.3 Kg, BMI=21.58±1.23, VO 2max =41.01± 2.27, ml/kg/min, fat percentage=14.32±1.80) and resistance-endurance (age=23±2, height=175.1±5 cm, weight=71.2±10 Kg, BMI=23.26±3.17, VO 2max =41.66± 2.68, ml/kg/min, fat percentage=16.95±3.81). The concurrent exercise of endurance-resistance protocol consisted of 10 minutes warm-up, 20 minutes running of 60 to 70 percent heart beat, and 10 minutes active recovery for the endurance phase. The second phase involving resistance exercises included 50 minutes of power exercises of knee extension, bench press, knee flexion, and finally back and front exercises of arm in three sets of 10 to 12 repetition and 70 percent of one repetition maximum (1RM) and 10 minutes active recovery (stretching exercises)[6,14]. The protocol of concurrent resistance-endurance exercises was performed unlike the previous protocol. In statistical analysis, the demographic information of the subjects and research data were collected and elaborated through table. Then, research hypotheses were examined at significance level of 0.05 according to previous studies. The normality of the collected data was approved by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and then the data was analyzed by paired and independent samples of t test at p 0.05 using SPSS 15 software. RESULTS Concerning Testosterone hormone changes, the results of this research show that, the changes before and after Testosterone hormone in endurance resistance group is not significant (p>0/15).nevertheless, the changes before and after Testosterone hormone in resistance endurance group was significant (p<0/007). On the other hand, the results showed that there is no significant difference in the range of Testosterone changes between two groups of 2777

3 endurance resistance and resistance endurance (p>0/67).the results about the changes before and after Cortisol hormone showed no significant changes of Cortisol in both groups. Also, no significant differences between two groups. Concerning ranges of Cortisol hormone was seen. The results of the changes of before and after Testosterone / Cortisol ratio showed no significant changes in that ratio in both first and second group. Finally, the results of the percentage changes in indices showed that,second group (resistance endurance) compared with first group (endurance resistance) in Cortisol had more increasing percentage but in two indexes of Testosterone and Testosterone / Cortisol ratio had more decrease (The table 1). Table 1: Variations before and after, difference between groups and percentage changes in hormonal indicators of subjects. Testosterone / Cortisol ratio p t 0/10 1/84 0/12 1/77 0/76 0/30-11/95-18/83 Cortisol p t 0/44-0/80 0/31-1/09 0/50-0/68 6/86 11/83 Testosterone p t 0/15 1/57 0/007 3/75 0/67 0/43-8/26-15/50 Groups First (ER) Second(RE) Between groups First(ER) Second(RE) Statistical methods Paired t Independent t Percentage change DISCUSSION In relation to Testosterone hormone changes, the results of this research shows no significant changes before and after Testosterone hormone in endurance resistance group. Nevertheless, the changes before and after Testosterone hormone in resistance endurance group was significant. On the other hand, the findings showed that there is no significant difference in range of Testosterone between two groups of endurance resistance and resistance endurance. Few researches have reported increase and decrease of Testosterone after concurrent exercises of endurance resistance and resistance endurance [9,10].So that, results of Hakkinen et al study was in line with this researches findings on significant increase of Testosterone after concurrent exercise(resistance endurance) [18]. At the same issue, Deakin indicated in study that both training groups (endurance resistance) and (resistance endurance) had the same significant decrease compared with (before and after) Testosterone, (respectively p<0/022, p<0/024) [10]. In addition, Deakin in another research observed no significant difference in Testosterone amount in two concurrent groups. But resistance endurance group showed more increase compared to endurance resistance in Testosterone amount [11]. In contrast, Kraemer et al not in line with the results of this stady, noted that Testosterone did not change after implementation of strength endurance training [21].In addition, horne et al noted the lack of change of Testosterone after strength endurance training[19].in the same way, Bell and his partners also noted the lack of change of Testosterone after strength-endurance training [4].So, the difference between the concluded results of this study and previous studies is probably because of type of subjects, sex, exercise plan, intensity and volume of exercise[9.15]. About changes in Cortisol, results of this study showed that, changes before and after Cortisol hormone in both groups hadn t any significant increase (p>0.05).in addition, no significant difference between two groups about range of Cortisol, was seen (p>0.50). Nevertheless few studies have reported increase and decrease of Cortisol hormone after combined training of endurance-resistance and resistance-endurance. In this regard, the result of Hakkinen study was in line with results of this study based on Cortisol failure to increase significantly after combined training (resistance-endurance) [17]. In addition, Arazi et al, noted the lack of significant increase in Cortisol( before and after )because of combined training [1].Deakin, also noted that the lack of significant difference of Cortisol in both combined groups. But the combined groups of resistance-endurance showed greater response in Cortisol levels compared with endurance-resistance group[11].against the results of this study, Deakin reported the significant decrease in both combine groups[10].in addition to Deakin, Guilherme et al noted the significant decrease of Cortisol after combined activity (resistance-endurance) [16].In line with the results of this study, Bell et al and Kraemer et al also noted the increase in Cortisol after combined training of resistance-endurance[4.21]. In addition, also Home et al, noted the increase in changes before and after Cortisol hormone in training group of resistance-endurance [19].Since, increase in Cortisol according to the training status of individuals depends on intensity of exercises, Cortisol responses to a certain amount of exercise and in short term exercises (less than 30 min) whit moderate intensity (60 to 70 V02max) it doesn t increase. On the other hand, high-volume resistance training can significantly increase the amount of Cortisol. However, a gradual decrease in Cortisol levels after 2778

4 exercise was seen after submaximal exercise in subjects who had endurance and strength training compared with untrained individuals [ ]. So, probably, the increase in desired characteristics in combine group of resistance-endurance is due to endurance component. About changes of Testosterone to Cortisol ratio in the two groups, respectively, endurance-resistance and resistance-endurance hadn t any significant change (p>0.12, p>0.10). In addition, no significant difference were observed between two groups in the variation range of Testosterone to Cortisol ratio (p>0.76).in this regard, Deakin reported in his two studies that there is no significant difference between obtained mean difference of Testosterone to Cortisol ratio into groups [10, 11]. All together, results of this study show that, both training protocols (endurance-resistance and resistance-endurance) cause changes in hormonal indices. But the rate of percentage increase of this indices, comparing (before and after) training protocols in second group (resistance-endurance) compared to first group (endurance-resistance) was more, respectively, Testosterone (first group %-8.26 and second group % decrease), Cortisol (first group %6.86 and second group %11.83 increase ) and Testosterone to Cortisol ratio (first group % and second group % decrease).in this regard, Deakin reported in his study that, the mount of Cortisol, Testosterone and Testosterone to Cortisol ratio at resistance-endurance group had more increase than endurance-resistance group, so that, no significant difference between two groups existed (p>0.57).it means that endurance-resistance training compared to resistance-endurance trainings has a more anabolic situation[11].in contrast, Deakin at another study reported that endurance-resistance group hasa lower Testosterone to Cortisol ratio compared with resistance-endurance group. And showed that endurance-resistance group against resistance-endurance group provide more catabolic conditions [10]. CONCLUSION Totally, the results of this study show that both training protocols (endurance-resistance and resistance-endurance) cause changes in hormonal indices. But the rate of percentage increase of these indices, (before and after) training protocols in second group resistance-endurance compared with first group (endurance-resistance) was more, respectively Testosterone (first group %-8.26 and second group % decrease) Cortisol (first group %6.86 and second group %11.83 increase) and Testosterone to Cortisol ratio (first group % and second group % decrease). So, performing one session of combined exercise, endurance-resistance compared with one session of resistance-endurance exercise despite no significant difference in the indices, provide a better anabolic condition and due to cell damage, causes less damage. But in this regard and for obtaining definitive results more studies should be performed. REFERENCES [1]H.Arazi,A.Damirchi,A.Mostafaloo. Journal of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences.2011,9, [2]P.J.Abernethy,B.M.Quigley. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.1993,7, [3]J.Arto,M.K.Antti,H.M.Timo,K.Hannu,N.Seppo,V.H.Heikki, et al.european Journal of Applied Physiology.2005,5, [4] G.J. Bell, D.Syrotuik, T.P.Martin,R.Burnham,H.A. Quinney. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2000,81, [5]T.O.Bompa. Dubuque Kendall /Hunt Publishing Company.1994, [6]T.O. Bompa. Human Kinetics.2003, [7]K.K.Brownlee,A.W.Moore,A.C.Hackney.Journal of Sports Science and Medicine.2005,4, [8]E.L.Cadore, R.S.Pinto, F.L.R.Lhullier,C.S.Correa,C.L.Alberton,S.S.Pinto, et al. Int J Sports Med.2010, 31, [9]G.B.Deakin. School of Exercise Science and Sport Management, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia [10]G.B.Deakin. School of Exercise Science and Sport Management, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia [11]G.B.Deakin. School of Exercise Science and Sport Management, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia [12]G.B.Deakin.School of Exercise Science and Sport Management, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia

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