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From a health perspective it may be good that green tea does not contain all-too much caffeine. From a fat loss perspective, it clearly lacks caffeine.

When it comes to dietary supplements, people like to pay tons of money for unproven ingredients with funky names and dubious or non-existent safety profiles; agents that have been scientifically proven to work, are save and cheap, on the other hand, are non-sellers or at least considered to be non-effective.

Obviously, I cannot really explain why that is the case (I suspect it is because people effect drug-like effects without drug-like side-effects from supps and are thus always on the lookout for the "next big"... hoax), I can tell you, though, that a recent study that is going to be published in one of the upcoming issues of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (Jo. 2015) shows that caffeine and green tea, two supplements that belong to the previously described category, are everything but useless.
In said study, Edward Jo and colleagues investigated the effects of a caffeine + green tea polyphenol mix (250mg caffeine + 400mg of a green tea extract with 50% EGCG and 5mg of caffeine per serving) on (a) metabolic rate and fat oxidation at rest, as well as following a bout of sprint interval exercise (SIE) and (b) the performance during a standardized sprint-interval test.

The study was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study that involvd 12 subjects (male: n=11; female:1 n=1) whose antroprometric data, i.e "body mass=76.1±2.2 kg; height= 169.8±1.6 cm; BMI= 22.7±3.0 kg/m2; body fat %= 21.6±2.0% [DXA data]" (Jo. 2015), already tell you that they were healthy recreationally active, but not necessarily athletic (it may be worth mentioning that they were relatively stim-naive with an intake of < 201mg of caffeine per day).

Figure 1: Energy expenditure (kcal/h) and fat oxidation (g/day) measure before (at rest) and during (during SIE) the sprint interval exercise 10 and 55 minutes after the ingestion of caffeine + GTE or placebo (Jo. 2015).

During the two testing sessions at the Human Performance Research Laboratory of the California State Polytechnic University, the subjects' resting energy expenditure (REE) was measured for 45 minutes starting 10 minutes after the ingestion of the aforementioned caffeine + polyphenol mix - a mix that was consumed on an empty stomach after an 8-h overnight fast (don't be fooled by the way the scientists report their data in "g/day" and kcal/day - I changed the latter, already but the values for fat in g would have become to small - we are talking about 45 + 30 min and a 24h measurement here).
After the initial 45-minutes, during which the subjects' resting energy expenditure had been measured, the subjects were placed on a computer-integrated cycle ergometer on which they performed a standardized 30 minute sprint interval exercise (SIE) protocol., the scientists describe as follows:

"Sprint-Interval Exercise Protocol. The SIE protocol was performed on the Velotron DynaFit Pro cycle ergometer and comprised of four 30-second maximal effort intervals each separated by 5 minutes of low-intensity, constant workload cycling (Figure 2). First, the ergometer was properly adjusted for the subject. Adjustment specifications for each subject was recorded during their familiarization visit and repeated for all experimental trials. Subjects initiated the SIE protocol with a 5-minute interval of low-intensity cycling at a constant workload of 75W. Immediately after, subjects cycled with maximal effort for 30 seconds against an added resistance that is 7.5% of BW for males and 7.2% for females. These two intervals were repeated three additional times. After the last 30-second sprint interval, the subjects performed an additional low-intensity 75W interval plus an extra 3 minutes of cool-down at a constant workload of 30W. The total duration of the SIE protocol was 30 minutes" (Jo. 2015).

A workout that had little effect on the effect of the caffeine + green tea combo which did, as you can see, when you compare the "at rest" and "during SIE" values in Figure 1, increase the energy at rest and during sprint interval training to a similar extent. More specifically, the increase in energy expenditure and fat oxidation was - within the margin of inter-individual variability - in the range of +10% during both conditions.

Figure 2: Illustration of the sprint interval exercise test performed 55 min after ingesting the supplement (Jo. 2015).

In view of the fact that we may safely assume that this effect should last for at least 2-3h this can be a practically relevant effect if it is complemented by a reduced energy intake and a caloric deficit. If the latter is not present, even the extremest increases in fat oxidation and energy expenditure will fizzle out and be as irrelevant as the effect of the caffeine + green tea combination on exercise average and peak power (W) during the sprint training, Jo et al. observed in their study... and "Yes!", that is disappointing, but in view of the low dose of caffeine and the non-existent effects of green tea on performance during a test like this not really surprising.
References:

• Jo et al. "Dietary Caffeine And Polyphenol Supplementation Enhances Overall Metabolic Rate And Lipid Oxidation At Rest And After A Bout Of Sprint Interval Exercise." Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: Post Acceptance: November 23, 2015. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001277

BodyPump is a fast paced workout with barbells. Light(er) weights, high reps, loud music and a drill instructor... if you know one, you'll know all of these group based "resistance training" workouts.

Sunday and time for a brief review of the latest exercise-related publications. Today, I picked two studies that took a closer look at something I would never suggest you'd consider a primary measure of the quality of your training: The energy expenditure during and after your workouts.

While exercise and the exercise-induced increase in energy-expenditure is an important pillar of diet (+ exercise) induced weight loss. The dietary component is what makes you lose weight, while the exercise component is meant to (a) maximize the retention of lean muscle tissue and (b) improve your overall fitness and health. If you're just "working out to burn energy" you're destined to fail; not least because you will never be able to tell exactly how many kcals you've "left in the gym". And beware: Especially while dieting, it's usually much less than you think ;-)

• People overestimate the energetic demands of "intense" exercise (Berthiaume. 2015) - In view of the fact that everyone knows the (inaccurate) rule of thumb that says that the amount of energy (in kcal) you expend when you're jogging is roughly your body weight times 10 (it's actually rather body weight times 7, unless you're running really fast, by the way), it's not surprising that Berthiaume et al.'s latest study shows that their subjects, 40 healthy men and women (age: 31.7±5.8 years, body mass index [BMI]: 24±2.6 kg/m²), significantly overestimated the amount of energy they expended during a (perceived) "intense" BodyPump(TM) workout.
  

  Figure 1: Young, healthy BodyPump practitioners overestimate the energetic demands of this kind of equipment based group workouts by over 36% (Berthiaume. 2015).

  Instead of the 394.1±116 kcal, the subjects thought they'd burned, the scientists measurements yielded an average energy expenditure of only 250.3±67.8 kcal during the 60 minute workout. Now, that's not really a problem if do BodyPump, because you like group workouts like these. In view of the fact that the typical clientele of programs like these tends to charge the energy they expend during workouts against the energy from extra food they'd like to eat (BIG mistake, learn why), this may be problematic.
  

  Figure 2: Just a reminder: The energy expenditure (kcal per kg of body weight per hour) due to body weight exercises calculated based on oxygen uptake during the exercises (traditional) or during the rest periods has been shown to be rather under- than overestimated (Vezina. 2014 | read more)

  Now, you may remember the results of Vezina's 2014 study (see Figure 2 and previous article). In said paper they used a much more precise method to arrive at the actual energy expenditure. In Berthiaume's study, a simple SenseWear armband was used. That's not the "traditional calc." in Figure 2 that proved to be so unreliable in Vezina's study, but it may still suffer from the same shortcomings when it comes to measuring anaerobic vs. aerobic energy expenditure. It would thus be prudent to be at least somewhat skeptical of the exactness of Berthiaume's results.
• Exercise type and post-workout supplementation influence post-exercise resting energy expenditure and respiratory exchange ratio (Wingfield. 2015) - I know, I have written about EPOC, which is actually nothing else than the total post-exercise energy expenditure in relation to the respiratory exchange ratio, repeatedly. There is a reason, though, that the latest study from the University of North Carolina still made it into the waredownloadsoft news: It compared six exercise sessions, consisting of three exercise modalities and two acute nutritional interventions - that's extraordinary, for sure.
  • AEE - aerobic endurance exercise - 30-min on the treadmill at 45% to 55% of the heart rate reserve), high-intensity interval running 
  • HIIT - ten rounds of a 60-s treadmill run at 85% to 95% HRR with a 60-s passive rest period), and 
  • HIRT - high-intensity resistance training consisting of leg presses and bench presses, lunges, shoulder presses, biceps curls, and triceps extensions using free weights for three sets of 6RM to 8RM followed by a 20- to 30-s rest for each set of a given exercise and 2.5 min between each exercise 
  • CHO and PRO (25 g of CHO (maltodextrin) or PRO (whey isolate) mixed with 6 oz of water in an opaque bottle. 
  With its s randomized, crossover, double-blind design, the study is also pretty well-powered, even though it had only twenty female, recreationally active participants (mean ± SD; age 24.6 ± 3.9 years; height 164.4 ± 6.6 cm; weight 62.7 ± 6.6 kg).
  

  Figure 3: Overview of the study design (Wingfield. 2015).

  Next to the post-exercise resting energy expenditure (REE) and respiratory rate (RER), which were analyzed via indirect calorimetry at baseline, immediately post (IP), 30 minutes (30 min) post, and 60 minutes (60 min) post exercise, the scientists obtained salivary samples, as well (both didn't change sign.). The latter were used to determine estradiol-β-17 and cortisol levels before the workouts. To exclude any influence of dietary changes, the subjects were asked to eat diets similar to those they had consumed when they wrote their 3-day food logs at the beginning of the study. Practically speaking, this meant that, on average, subjects ingested 2,078.7 ± 679.9 kcal, 253.7 ± 97.6 g CHO (approximately 48.8% CHO), 84.3 ± 29.9 g PRO (approximately 16.2% PRO), and 80.9 ± 36.7 g of fat (approximately 35.0% fat) per day.
  

  Figure 4: Only the HIIT modality yielded sign. inter-group differences as far as the resting energy expenditure is concerned. Even those were very transient, though, and disappeared 30 min after the workout (Wingfield. 2015).

  Interestingly, a statistical significant effect for the resting energy expenditure (REE) was observed only in the HIIT, yet not in the HIRT trial (Figure 4, A). This is a result you may not have expected based on the assumption that any form of intense activity (like resistance training in this case) should have some sort of "afterburn" effect.

• What is less surprising is the relatively small, but "significant" (statistically, only!) increase in REE in response to protein vs. carbohydrate (Figure 4, B). So, protein is thermogenic even after a workout. Unfortunately, the increase in energy expenditure and the increase in fatty oxidation as signified by the reduced respiratory exchange ratio in Figure 5 B are way too small to be of any practical relevance.
  

  Figure 5: Effect of exercise modality and CHO vs. PRO supplement on the respiratory exchange ratio (RER); lower values indicate greater fat and lower carbohydrate oxidation (Wingfield. 2015).

  Eventually, the same can be said of the decrease in RER (=increase in fatty oxidation) in response to the HIIT and the increase in RER (=decrease in fatty acid oxidation) in response to the HIRT regimen. Both are statistically significant and look large enough to be relevant. When all is said and done, it does yet not really matter if you burn fat directly or glucose first. Whether you lose or gain body fat is after all a matter of the total energy balance over days and weeks, and not the fatty acid oxidation during and 60 minutes after your workouts.

"Yes", GTE will increase your total energy expenditure (TEE) and decrease the ratio of glucose to fat you're burning at rest and during your workouts, but "NO", it won't make your abs appear w/out dietin'.

You will remember that I am not exactly a fan of green tea extracts. In spite of the fact that there are studies that suggest reductions of both thyroid hormone and testosterone production, when you consume high(er) amounts, their anti-inflammatory effects appear to help (obese) people lose weight. In view of the fact that a recent study suggests that this does not interfere with the adaptational response to exercise, like vitamin C + E, for example (learn more), they are thus still among the most promising over-the-counter anti-obesity agents.

With that being said, the increase in fatty oxidation is often mentioned when people try to explain why green tea helps (obese) people lose fat.
As a waredownloadsoft reader, however, you know that a mere increase in the use of fats over carbohydrates will not translate into practical weight loss. Against that background it is important to investigate the effects of green tea extracts on both, the respiratory exchange ratio (RER), which is the quotient of glucose / fat that's used to fuel your basal and exercise-induced metabolic demands, as well as their effects on your total energy expenditure.

Luckily, a recent study from the Charles Darwin University and the University of New South Wales in Australia includes both measures of changes in RER, resting energy expenditure (REE) and the total energy expenditure (REE + activity induced energy expenditure).

Figure 1: Diagrammatic representation of the study design. * indicates blood collection. Lactate assessed at *1, *2, *4, *6, *9; catecholamines at *1, *4, *5, and glycerol at *1–*9 (Gahreman. 2015).

But that's not all. The scientists also took a look at the potential mediators of increased energy expenditure and fatty acid use like catecholamines and they did so in normal-weight young women (age: 21.5 +/- 0.5 years; body mass: 65.7 +/- 1.8 kg; BMI: 24.3 +/- 0.4 kg/m²; maximal oxygen consumption; VO2max): 32.1 +/- 1.7 mL/kg/min) and not the usual subjects: Overweight or obese post-menopausal women or male and female patients with type II diabetes.
I have plotted the most relevant results of experiment the design of which is represented graphically in in Figure 1 for you in Figure 2. Please note that only the changes in VO2 which are indicative of an increased oxidation of fatty acids and the corresponding RER, the quotient of carbohdydrate oxidation and fat oxidation changed significantly.

Figure 2: Response at rest and during and after intermittent sprinting exercise in the green tea and placebo conditions; data expressed as relative differences between GTE and PLA (Gahreman. 2015).

It is thus all the more important to put the effects the consumption of three GTE (250 mg of camellia sinesis extract w/ 187.5 mg polyphenols, 125 mg EGCG) or placebo (cellulose) capsules the day before and one capsule 90 min before a 20-min intermittent sprinting exercise (ISE) cycling protocol consisting of

• a 5-min warm-up at 30 W, and 20 min of ISE on a Monark Ergomedic 839E ergometer at 110 RPM during the sprint phase and 40 RPM during the recovery phase (pedal resistance for the sprint phase was calculated as 60% of each participant’s maximal power output) 
• during which the subjects performed a total of sixty 8-s/12-s bouts totaling 8 min of sprinting and 12 min of easy pedaling recovery 

had on the metabolism of the fourteen untrained non-habitual coffee or green tea drinkers (< 2 cups per day) during the exercise, as well as before and after the ISE protocol:

Table 1: Mean power output, rating of perceived exertion, and lactate response to the sprinting and recovery components of the intermittent sprinting exercise for the placebo and green tea conditions (mean and SEM | Gahrmen. 2015).

• There was a significant increase in fat oxidation post-exercise compared to at rest in the placebo condition (p < 0.01). 
• After GTE ingestion, however, at rest and post-exercise, fat oxidation was significantly greater (p < 0.05) than that after placebo. 
• Plasma glycerol levels at rest and 15 min during post-exercise were significantly higher (p < 0.05) after GTE consumption compared to placebo. 
• There was no significant increase in total energy expenditure during or after exercise, though - that's in line with results Gregersen et al. (2009) generated in a study in normal-weight men, but different from some studies in normal-weight-to-moderately overweight men like Dullo et al. (1999) that report increases in TEE of ~2,8% over both, placebo and caffeine.
• Compared to placebo, plasma catecholamines increased significantly after GTE consumption and 20 min after ISE (p < 0.05 | not shown in Figure 2). 
• The effects are almost certainly not triggered by caffeine, because the capsules contained only 20mg of caffeine and previous studies have shown that only oral dose of more than 100 mg caffeine will elicit a significant increase in thermogenic response (Bracco. 1995; Dulloo. 1998 - suggest that 600-1,000mg/day is necessary for sign. increases in thermogenesis).
• It's also worth noting that there were no significant differences in mean power output, RPE, lactate levels, RPM (Table 1), and HR levels between the GTE and placebo trials. This leaves little doubt that the effects were not mediated by direct ergogenic effects (= higher exercise performance / effort) in response to the GTE supplementation.
• Lastly, it should be said that even though this was not tested in the study at hand, previous clinical trials like Bérubé-Parent et al. (2005) report identical thermogenic effects for low and high dosages of GTE. Thus, simply taking more GTE probably wouldn't have changed the results considerably.

Overall, the results of the study do thus support the ubiquitous claim that the ingestion of green tea extracts can significantly increase the fat oxidation at rest, during and after exercise when compared to placebo. In spite of the fact that the conclusion of the abstract to the study at hand makes it appear as if that was a practically highly relevant finding, there's one question neither the abstract nor the full-text of the paper actually address: Do the increase in fatty oxidation and the (albeit non-significant) increases in total and resting energy expenditure mean that consuming green tea extracts is going to help young, healthy, non-overweight women like the subjects in the study at hand lose body fat?
References:

• Bérubé-Parent, Sonia, et al. "Effects of encapsulated green tea and Guarana extracts containing a mixture of epigallocatechin-3-gallate and caffeine on 24 h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in men." British Journal of Nutrition 94.03 (2005): 432-436.
• Bracco, David, et al. "Effects of caffeine on energy metabolism, heart rate, and methylxanthine metabolism in lean and obese women." American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism 269.4 (1995): E671-E678.
• Dulloo, A. G., et al. "Normal caffeine consumption: influence on thermogenesis and daily energy expenditure in lean and postobese human volunteers." The American journal of clinical nutrition 49.1 (1989): 44-50.
• Dulloo, Abdul G., et al. "Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans." The American journal of clinical nutrition 70.6 (1999): 1040-1045.
• Gahreman, Daniel, et al. "Green Tea, Intermittent Sprinting Exercise, and Fat Oxidation." Nutrients 7.7 (2015): 5646-5663.
• Gregersen, Nikolaj T., et al. "Effect of moderate intakes of different tea catechins and caffeine on acute measures of energy metabolism under sedentary conditions." British journal of nutrition 102.08 (2009): 1187-1194.
• Hill, Alison M., et al. "Can EGCG reduce abdominal fat in obese subjects?." Journal of the American College of Nutrition 26.4 (2007): 396S-402S.
• Jówko, Ewa, et al. "The effect of green tea extract supplementation on exercise-induced oxidative stress parameters in male sprinters." European journal of nutrition (2014): 1-9.
• Phung, Olivia J., et al. "Effect of green tea catechins with or without caffeine on anthropometric measures: a systematic review and meta-analysis." The American journal of clinical nutrition 91.1 (2010): 73-81.
• Rains, Tia M., Sanjiv Agarwal, and Kevin C. Maki. "Antiobesity effects of green tea catechins: a mechanistic review." The Journal of nutritional biochemistry 22.1 (2011): 1-7.

No, this is not the first time you read about "battling the rope" and how it could be an excellent form of fat burning and conditioning HIIT training. In my previous article "Want to Get Ripped & Strong? 'Battling the Rope' Could be THE Exercise to Do!" I've already discussed the proven long-term benefits of this intense conditioning exercise | learn more.

Usually, I handpick the three best studies for overviews like this, but with the Journal of Strength and Conditioning research, this is not always easy. With the September issue, only some studies are interesting, and there are no real "blockbuster" that would deserve an article on their own. Don't get me wrong. There's still interesting information, there but I guess what's most interesting is significantly more open to debate than usually.

Accordingly, today's research update contains my very personal favorites from September 2015 issue of this journal. Well, my favorites minus one study by Soares et al. (2015) about which I've written in my April 2015 article "Single- vs. Multi-Joint, Rookie vs. Gymrat - How Much Rest is Required in Trained Athletes if Noobs Need 72h or More?" (read it!), when the study was published initially as an online exclusive "ahead of print" print article five months ago.

• Rest intervals and their effects on metabolism and velocity loss during battling the rope and ballistic bench press exercises - With the studies by Ratames, et al. (2015) and Garcia-Ramos et al. the latest issue of the JSC contains not one but two studies that deal with the effects of reducing the inter-set (rope) and inter-rep (ballistic bench press = "bench throws") times.
  

  Figure 1: Aerobic and anaerobic energy expenditure with 2 and 1 minute rest between 30s bouts of battling the rope in the welve men and 10 women (age = 20.8 6 1.3 years) who participanted in Ratamess study (ibid. 2015).

  While Ratames' study shows the expected increase in energy expenditure and fatty oxidation, as well as the lactate levels and heart rates of the female subjects, when the rest-time between the 8 sets of 30-second intervals (15 seconds of single-arm waves and 15 seconds of double-arm waves) of battling the rope were reduced from two to one minute, the results of the study by Garcia-Ramos (2015) require a correlation analysis to confirm that increasing the inter-set rest during "bench throws" (=ballistic bench presses) with 30%RM, 40%RM, or 50%RM from 6 to 12 seconds ameliorated the otherwise linear decrease in the maximal number of reps significantly.
  
  

  Want to Design a Killer Workout? Reduce the Rest Times and Burn 37% More Energy During Your Workout!

  In view of the effect that both outcomes where expected, it may be most intriguing that the 33% and 32% increases in total energy expenditure in the men and women (respectively) in Ratamess study were significantly more pronounced than what one may have expected from a mere reduction in rest times. Based on Ratamess previously discussed study that involved a full body resistance training workout and increases in energy expenditure of up to 37%, waredownloadsoft veterans should not be too surprised by the efficacy increase due to the reduction of the rest times. One thing you should keep in mind, however, is that any decrease in rest times will also lead to an increase in fatigue. In the Ratamess study, the increased in the rate of perceived exertion was 14% in the female and 21% in the male subjects.
• No, hydration doesn't matter for marathoners, only - While we usually think of endurance athletes when we talk about the effects of (de-)hydration on exercise performance, the reality is that everyone can experience the ergolytic (=performance decreasing) effects of dehydration. Against that background, it's sad that the number of studies that quantify these effects is very limited. With Davies et al.'s (2015) latest contribution we do now have the first detailed study on the effects of dehydration on repeated sprint performance which is highly relevant for almost every teamsport and may also give us insights into the effects of dehydration on high(er) rep strength training.
  
  In their study, the researchers from several universities had eight male collegiate baseball players complete intermittent sprints either dehydrated (DEHY) by 3% body mass or euhydrated (EU). To induce the state of dehydration the men were subjected to heat with controlled fluid restriction occurring 1 day before the trial. During the actual trial, which was repeated with appropriate time for recovery, the participants completed twenty-four 30-m sprints divided into 3 bouts of 8 sprints with 45 seconds of rest between each sprint and 3 minutes between each bout.
  

  waredownloadsoft Suggested: Learn why sodium restriction in athletes is a stupid idea (learn more)

  The study outcomes, perceived recovery status (PRS), heart rate (HR), ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) (0–10 OMNI scale), and perceived readiness (PR) scale, as well as the session RPE (SRPE), were recorded after every sprint, and 20 minutes after completing the entire session, respectively.
  

  Figure 2: Sprint times and rates of perceived exertion after each bout of exercise (Davies. 2015).

  The authors'  2 (condition) × 3 (bout of sprints) repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of condition on mean sprint time (p = 0.03), HR (p < 0.01), RPE (p = 0.01), and PR (p = 0.02).
  
  In addition, the scientists' post hoc tests showed significantly faster mean sprint times for EU vs. DEHY during the second (4.87 ± 0.29 vs. 5.03 ± 0.33 seconds; p = 0.01) and third bouts of sprints (4.91 ± 0.29 vs. 5.12 ± 0.44 seconds; p = 0.02). Heart rate was also significantly lower (p ≤ 0.05) for EU during the second and third bouts. Post hoc measures also showed significantly impaired (p ≤ 0.05) feelings of recovery (PRS) before exercise and increased (p ≤ 0.05) perceptual strain before each bout (PR) during the second and third bouts of repeated sprint work (i.e., RPE and PR) and after the total session (SRPE) in the DEHY condition.
  
  

  Every Sip of Plain Water Can Reduce Your Type II Diabetes Risk | more

  It is thus hard to argue with Davis' conclusion that all three observed effects, i.e. the impaired sprint performance, the negatively altered perception of recovery status before exercise, and the increased RPE and HR response are reasonable arguments to make sure you're always staying well hydrated. Plus: If you think of the recently discussed study on the way hydration can help you avoid type II diabetes (read it again), this advise is just as relevant for non-athletes.
• Expected but often disclaimed reduction in vastus lateralis activity when squatting with knee wraps - Ok, ok... there's one thing that's missing here: The reduction occurs if the weight that's used with and without the knee wraps is identical. If, however, you are able to squat 10% more, which is very likely, since studies indicate increases of >20% in maximal isometric force during the squat exercise, independent of the level of stiffness of the knee wrap (Gomes. 2014), the results of Gomes' latest study (2015) are no real reason to worry about your gains.
  

  Figure 3: Changes in vastus lateralis (A), gluteus maximimus (B) EMG activity and knee and hip angles (C) when doing back squats with (KW) or without (NW) knee wraps (Gomes. 2015).

  Eventually it would just have been a reduction in vastus lateralis activity, anyway. For the gluteus the activity doesn't change, anyways; and that in spite of the fact that the range of motion (the knee angle | Figure 3, right, black bars) is reduced when you're squatting with knee wraps (KW) vs. without wraps (NW).

References:

• Davis, J.-K, Laurent, CM, Allen, KE, Green, JM, Stolworthy, NI, Welch, TR, and Nevett, ME. Influence of dehydration on intermittent sprint performance. J Strength Cond Res 29(9): 2586–2593, 2015
• García-Ramos, A, Padial, P, Haff, GG, Argüelles-Cienfuegos, J, García-Ramos, M, Conde-Pipó, J, and Feriche, B. Effect of different interrepetition rest periods on barbell velocity loss during the ballistic bench press exercise. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2015 
• Gomes, Willy Andrade, et al. "Acute effects on maximal isometric force with and without knee wrap during squat exercise." Int J Sports Sci 4.2 (2014): 47-49.
• Hooper, DR, Dulkis, LL, Secola, PJ, Holtzum, G, Harper, SP, Kalkowski, RJ, Comstock, BA, Szivak, TK, Flanagan, SD, Looney, DP, DuPont, WH, Maresh, CM, Volek, JS, Culley, KP, and Kraemer, WJ. Roles of an upper-body compression garment on athletic performances. J Strength Cond Res 29(9): 2655-2660, 2015
• Ratamess, NA, Smith, CR, Beller, NA, Kang, J, Faigenbaum, AD, and Bush, JA. Effects of rest interval length on acute battling rope exercise metabolism. J Strength Cond Res 29(9): 2375–2387, 201
• Soares, S, Ferreira-Junior, JB, Pereira, MC, Cleto, VA, Castanheira, RP, Cadore, EL, Brown, LE, Gentil, P, Bemben, MG, and Bottaro, M. Dissociated time course of muscle damage recovery between single- and multi-joint exercises in highly resistance-trained men. J Strength Cond Res 29(9): 2594–2599, 2015.

The less you rest, the more you burn.

If you're looking for the latest exercise science news, look no further! In today's installment of the short news you will learn about the effects of different rest intervals on the acute metabolic effects of "battling the rope", the effects of 5-week resistance training in hypoxia on the hormonal response to exercise and muscle strength and exercise metabolism.

Sounds great? Well, in that case let's get to the study designs and results without further ado.

• The Effects of Rest Interval Length on Acute Battling Rope Exercise Metabolism (Ratamess. 2015) - From a 2014 waredownloadsoft article you already know that battling the rope can get you ripped and jacked. A detailed analysis of the metabolic response to the "battle with the rope" was yet never conducted. With their latest study Nicholas A. Ratamess et al. are filling the gap.
  
  The purpose of the present study was to quantify and compare the acute metabolic responses to battling rope exercise utilizing two different rest intervals. Twelve men and ten women (age =20.8 ± 1.3 yrs) performed a control protocol and two battling rope exercise protocols on separate days (48 to 72 hours) in random order while connected to a metabolic system.
  

  Figure 1: Aerobic, anaerobic and post-exercise energy expenditure (kj/min) in 22 healthy, regularly exercising college-aged men (N = 12) and women (N = 10) using 1- and 2-minute rest intervals (Ratamess. 2015).

  The battling rope protocol consisted of 8 sets of 30-sec intervals (15 sec of single-arm waves and 15 sec of double arm waves) utilizing either a 1-min (1RI) or 2-min (2RI) rest interval length. A metronome was used to standardize repetition number/frequency for each exercise, i.e. 15 waves for each arm for single-arm waves and 15 repetitions of double-arm waves. Mean oxygen consumption (VO2) values for the entire protocol were significantly higher during the 1RI than 2RI protocol and values in men were 11.1% (1RI) and 13.5% (2RI) higher than women, respectively, and equated to 52.8 ± 5.5% (men) and 50.0 ± 11.2% (women) of VO2 max during 1RI and 40.5 ± 4.5% (men) and 37.7 ± 11.0% (women) of VO2 max during 2RI.
  
  

  Battle yourself lean | more

  Energy expenditure values were significantly higher during the 1RI than the 2RI protocol in men (11.93 ± 1.4 versus 8.78 ± 1.4 kcals/min) and women (7.69 ± 1.3 versus 5.04 ± 1.7 kcals/min) with values in men statistically higher than women. Blood lactate, mean protocol minute ventilation, and heart rate were significantly higher during the 1RI protocol than the 2RI protocol and these data were significantly higher in men compared to women.
  
  If you take a look at the energy expenditure bars in Figure 1 it is yet obvious that the extra-effort is well worth it for anyone trying to shed body fat - plus: based on the significant increase in heart rate you can expect to see more pronounced increases in fitness with the more intense 1-minute-rest protocol.
• Enhancing Short-Term Recovery After High Intensity Anaerobic Exercise (Al-Nawaiseh. 2015) - You probably know a few things that are supposed to help you recover, right? Vitamin C, vitamin E, NSAIDs, protein, cold water immersion, those are "only" five of the things athletes do because they believe that they'd give them the recovery edge.
  
  

  Anti-Oxidants & Resistance Training: In the Elderly We See Minimal Benefits. In the Young and Fit Potential Detriments ➯ Could ROS Management, Not Eradication Be the Key? Find out!

  Whether they work or not, however, is questionable - if you use each of them in isolation and, even more so, if you use them all at once... sounds like an overkill? Well that's exactly what AL-Nawaiseh et al. did in their latest study, they examined the effects of antioxidant vitamins (C+E), ibuprofen, cold water submersion, and whey protein administered simultaneously on short-term recovery from an AM + PM HIT protocol consisting of two sessions of two Wingate tests (3*30s Wingate tests) with 3 min of active recovery in between (that's two sessions in the AM and two sessions in the PM, separated by only 30 minutes).
  
  The participants were randomly assigned in counterbalanced order to start the first week as a treatment or as a control (non-treatment): 

  "In the treatment trial, participants were provided with two oral doses of 1000 mg of vitamin C (ascorbic acid with citrus bioflavonoids, General Nutrition Corp, PA, USA) and 400 IU of Vitamin E soft gel capsules (d-alpha tocopherol, General Nutrition Corp, PA, USA). The first dose was taken with dinner the night before the exercise protocol, and the second dose was taken on the morning of the exercise test. The morning doses were consumed at least 1 hour before the blood sample was taken. Ibuprofen doses (400 mg; two ADVIL liquid gels, 200 mg capsules, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, Madison, NJ, USA) were given to participants 30 min before each exercise session. The protein supplement, 23 g of whey protein (10.6 g EAA, 7.3 g of conditionally essential amino acids CEAA, and 5.6 g of NEAA ON® Sunrise, FL, USA), was mixed with 200 ml of skimmed milk to form a protein shake. The protein shake was given to participants within 3 min of finishing each exercise session in the treatment trial. Three to five minutes after the end of each exercise session, participants submerged their lower body in cold (10-12.5 °C) water for 10 min" (Al-Nawaiseh. 2015).

  Thusly fortified, the subjects didn't just feel less fatigued before the PM trials, they also performed at significantly higher mean intensities and reduced pain.
  

  Figure 2: Mean power and perceived pain rating during the two AM and PM Wingate protocols with and without the use of the five short-term recovery boosters (Al-Nawaiseh. 2015).

  If peak performance is all that counts (e.g. during a meet or race), the recovery quintet consisting of vitamin C+E, ibuprofen, whey and cold water immersion may thus in fact give you a potentially decisive advantage. In view of the possibility that the vitamin + NSAID combination may also blunt the hormetic and thus the adaptive response to exercise it is questionable, whether using the protocol on a regular basis would be a smart thing.
• The effects of 5-week resistance training in hypoxia on hormones and muscle strength (Yan. 2015) - You will remember from previous articles about hypoxia and training in low oxygen environments that you can use the lack of O2 to your endurance advantage. Originally, high altitude / low oxygen training were recommend mostly to endurance athletes. More recently, however, the evidence that training in hypoxia can benefit strength athletes, as well, is accumulating. Evidence like the results of a recent study from China in which the scientists tested the effects of different levels of systemic hypoxia on hormonal responses, strength and body composition changes during a 5-week resistance training.
  
  Twenty-five male subjects were randomly assigned into 3 experimental groups that performed 10 sessions (2 sessions/week) of barbell back squat (10 reps, 5 sets, 70% 1RM) under normoxia (NR, FiO2=21%) and hypoxia (HL, FiO2=16%; HH, FiO2=12.6%). Serum growth hormone (GH), testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) concentrations were measured before (Pre) and at 0 (T-0), 15 (T-15), 30 (T-30) min after exercise in the first and last training sessions. 1RM, isometric knee extension (KE), isometric leg press (LP) and body composition were evaluated before and after the protocol.
  

  Figure 3: Changes in body composition and strength - that's what really counts (Yan. 2015).

  In the first session, GH of really low (12.6% | HH) oxygen group (p<0.01) and low (16% | HL) oxygen group (p<0.01) was higher than NR at T-0. In the last session, however, only GH of HH was higher than NR at T-0 (p<0.05); meanwhile, T/C ratio of HH was higher than NR at Pre (p<0.01), T-0 (p<0.01) and T-15 (p<0.05).
  
  Following the training protocol, HH showed greater (p<0.05) improvement of isometric LP strength compared with NR; lean body mass (LBM) was increased in hypoxia groups only. Moderate intensity resistance training performed in severe hypoxia (FiO2=12.6%) induced greater GH responses and isometric strength gains in leg press than that in normoxia. What is more important than the GH and testosterone / cortisol increases are the beneficial effects on lean mass, strength and body fat which occurred in both the low and the very low oxygen condition - the additional hormonal bonus in the HH (12.6% O2) trial is nice, but over the relatively short study period it did not pay off.

References:

• Al-Nawaiseh, Ali M., Robert C. Pritchett, and Philip A. Bishop. "Enhancing Short-Term Recovery After High Intensity Anaerobic Exercise." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (2015).
• Ratamess, Nicholas A., et al. "The Effects of Rest Interval Length on Acute Battling Rope Exercise Metabolism." Journal of strength and conditioning research/National Strength & Conditioning Association (2015).
• Yan, Bing, et al. "The effects of 5-week resistance training in hypoxia on hormones and muscle strength." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (2015).