The Effects of Different Performance Enhancing Methods on Muscle Metabolism Post Exercise

As sedentary lifestyles are becoming more common, related health conditions including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. are also becoming more prevalent. Physical exercise and activity are proven to be important for improving health, however, less common yet just as important for overall health is using performance enhancing techniques. While there are a wide variety of performance enhancing techniques, this paper focuses on 4 of the most common: Cold-Water-Immersion (CWI), Heat Stress, Blood-Flow-Restriction (BFR), and sleep. Research has shown CWI decreases hypertrophy in response to resistance exercise and has been shown to increase some markers of endurance adaptations but has not shown long-term physiological benefits. Heat Stress has shown to improve both hypertrophy in response to resistance exercise and mitochondrial biogenesis in response to endurance exercise. BFR training has not been shown to contribute to significant improvements in exercise adaptations compared to traditional higher intensity resistance and endurance exercise. Finally, sleep deprivation has shown to significantly decrease hypertrophy and mitochondrial health, indicating sufficient sleep is very important to obtaining exercise adaptations and health benefits. All together, these results suggest the importance of performance enhancing techniques for overall skeletal muscle health.