Comparison of Hormone Responses Following Light Resistance Exercise with Partial Vascular Occlusion and Moderately Difficult Resistance Exercise Without Occlusion Authors:

Previous studies of contracting muscle with low loading and partial vascular occlusion demonstrated hypertrophy and strength adaptations similar to and exceeding those observed with traditional moderate to high resistance. The purpose of the study was to determine the anabolic and catabolic hormone responses to light resistance exercise combined with partial vascular occlusion. Three experimental conditions of light resistance with partial occlusion (LRO), moderate resistance with no occlusion (MR), and partial occlusion without exercise (OO) were performed by 8 healthy subjects (M±SD, 21±1.8 yrs). Three sets of single-arm biceps curls and single-leg calf presses were completed to failure with one-minute interset-rest periods. Workloads of 30% and 70% 1-RM for each exercise were lifted for the LRO and MR trials, respectively. Blood samples were taken pre, post, and 15 minutes post-exercise for each experimental condition. Lactate increased significantly in the LRO and MR trials and were not significantly different from each other at any time point. Growth hormone (GH) increased significantly by four-fold from pre to post-exercise in the LRO session but did not change significantly during this time period in the MR and OO trials (8.3±2.3 μg/L vs 2.1±1.2 and 2.6±0.94 μg/L, post-exercise, respectively, p<0.05). There were no changes in resting total testosterone (T; M ± SE; 15.7±1.6 nmol/L), free testosterone (FT; 54.1±4.5 pmol/L), or cortisol (267.6±22 nmol/L) across all trials and times. In conclusion, with similar lactate responses, light exercise combined with partial vascular occlusion elicits a greater GH response than moderate exercise without occlusion, but does not affect T, FT, or cortisol.