RPE, Metabolic and Hormonal Responses to Acute Resistance Exercise in Male and Female College Students

Abstract

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in physiological, metabolic, and hormonal responses after 65% of repetition maximum (RM) in males and females. METHODS Males (n=8, 20.0±2.1 years) and Females (n=8, ages 18.5-0.8 years) participated in a resistance session. The resistance exercise (RE) session included 3 sets of seven exercises, 10 repetitions at 65% 1RM intensity with 105 seconds rest periods. Serum free fatty acids (FFA), glucose, growth hormone (GH), estradiol (E), testosterone (T), cortisol (C) and capillary lactate concentrations were measured pre-exercise, post-exercise, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes into recovery. Respiratory variables (EPOC and RER) were also measured after RE session every 5 minutes until 60 minutes. RESULTS The relative strength (strength/muscle mass) of the upper body was significantly higher in males than in female (75.3% of male), lower leg strength (89.1% of male) did not show any difference between sex. There were no sex differences in GH, T, C, and E hormone responses including FFA and glucose except lactate (interaction effect, p=.020) after resistance exercise. Only GH increased significantly in both sexes immediately after RE. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that an acute bout of RE session included 3 sets of seven exercises, 10 repetitions at 65% 1RM intensity with 105 seconds rest periods can stimulate the metabolism (FFA, glucose and lactate) and GH excluding sex hormones (T and E) including C. On the other hand, there may be sex difference in the lactate response to RE.

Keywords

• resistance exercise
• sex
• metabolism
• hormone
• ffa