Graded reductions in pre-exercise muscle glycogen impair exercise capacity but do not augment cell skeletal muscle signalling: implication for CHO periodisation.

We examined the effects of graded muscle glycogen on exercise capacity and modulation of skeletal muscle signaling pathways associated with the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis. In a repeated-measures design. eight men completed a sleep-low, train-low model comprising an evening glycogen-depleting cycling protocol followed by an exhaustive exercise capacity test [8 x 3 min at 80% peak power output (PPO), followed by 1-min efforts at 80% PPO until exhaustion] the subsequent morning. After glycogen-depleting exercise, subjects ingested a total of 0 g/kg (L-CHO), 3.6 g/kg (M-CHO), or 7.6 g/kg (H-CHO) of carbohydrate (CHO) during a 6-h period before sleeping, such that exercise was commenced the next morning with graded (P < 0.05) muscle glycogen concentrations (means +/- SD: L-CHO: 88 +/- 43, M-CHO: 185 +/- 62, H-CHO: 278 +/- 47 mmol/kg dry wt). Despite differences (P < 0.05) in exercise capacity at 80% PPO between trials (L-CHO: 18 +/- 7, M-CHO: 36 +/- 3, II-CHO: 44 +/- 9 min). exercise induced comparable AMPK(Thr172) phosphorylation (similar to 4-fold) and PGC-la mRNA expression (similar to 5-fold) after exercise and 3 h after exercise, respectively. In contrast, neither exercise nor CHO availability affected the phosphorylation of p38MAPK(Thr18)(0/Tyr182) or CaMKIIThr268 or mRNA expression of p53, Tfam, CPT-1, CD36, or PDK4. Data demonstrate that when exercise is commenced with muscle glycogen < 300 mmol/kg dry wt, further graded reductions of 100 mmol/kg dry weight impair exercise capacity but do not augment skeletal muscle cell signaling. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We provide novel data demonstrating that when exercise is commenced with muscle glycogen below 300 mmol/kg dry wt (as achieved with the sleep-low, train-low model) further graded reductions in preexercise muscle glycogen of 100 mmol/kg dry wt reduce exercise capacity at 80% peak power output by 20-50% but do not augment skeletal muscle cell signaling.