This month our level 4 trainer, Pete reviews the latest fitness and nutrition research from July. This month, Pete looks into how much protein you need to build muscle strength and size – more isn’t necessarily better. Can caffeine actually make us stronger… and how a simple trick can increase the recruitment of your glutes in a squat.

So pop the kettle on, sit back and enjoy!

1. Periodising your training will make you stronger
OK, so here’s something some of you may have been wondering. Is it actually worth getting a proper periodised training programme from a personal trainer instead of just rocking up to the gym and doing a workout? Well, this month Williams et.al conducted a meta-analysis (a study which examines the results of lots of different studies) looking at whether periodised models elicited a greater increase in maximal strength as opposed to non-periodised methods. And the answer is . . . yes they do! The results of multiple studies corroborate the findings that periodisation of programming saw a greater benefit for maximal strength in upper body and lower body multi-joint movements.
I was very happy to read that all the time we spend writing out weeks of programme cycles for clients will be helping them to achieve their results faster.

2. Protein supplements will help your gains
The easiest way to think of this second study is as the daddy of studies into protein supplementation! It is another meta-analysis that took data from 49 studies and evaluated the results in order to ascertain the:

“effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults”.
Clearly, with so many studies included in the analysis, there was a great deal of variation with regard to the subjects that were used; there were a few studies who used trained individuals but the majority of the interventions were carried out on un-trained subjects. All of the studies had the subjects training ≥ 2 times per week, and lasted for between 4-52 weeks. The majority of the studies supplemented with whey protein but soy, casein, pea, milk, whole foods and protein blends were also used. It is also important to note that although the protein intake was increased the total daily energy intake did not increase.
The meta-analysis revealed that:

 “protein supplementation increased 1RM strength (by 2.49kg), fat-free mass (by 0.30kg), muscle fiber cross-sectional area (by 310μm2) and mid-thigh muscle cross-sectional area (by 7.2mm2).”

What these numbers show is that adding supplemental protein will aid with both size and strength.

The type of protein did not seem to have a significant effect on the results, and it’s also interesting to note that there did not appear to be any benefit of increasing protein above 1.6g per kg of bodyweight every day.

3. Will caffeine make me strong?
When you read this title I’m sure that many of you are thinking “please say yes!!”. Caffeine has been studied lots regarding endurance, but not as extensively when it comes to maximum strength. This month we had a study that looked into precisely that, and what’s even more exciting is that the subjects of the study were trained individuals (as often studies will be done with untrained individuals).
In summary, the results showed that ingesting caffeine had an acute impact on maximum lower body strength and on maximum upper body high-velocity strength. It was surprising that there appeared to be no reason as to why maximal lower body strength was increased but the same was not true about maximal upper body strength.
For those of you who are keen to pop this bit of info into practise, the numbers used in the study were 6mg of caffeine per kg bodyweight and it was ingested 1 hour prior to training.

4. Should we ban(d) squats to target the glutes?
Sorry for the teasing title and for getting a few hopes raised the research had shown that everybody should stop squatting immediately! Unfortunately not, this piece of research is actually about what we can do to get more bang for our buck from the squat. The aim was to find out whether popping a band around the upper thighs would increase glute activation, and to see if it would have any effect on the number of reps that could be performed at a given weight.
Interestingly, the only effect that was seen through adding a band was that EMG for the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius were increased for both the eccentric and concentric phases of the squat. EMG amplitudes for the bicep femoris and vastus lateralis were unchanged when the band was added. There was also no change in the amount of reps that could be performed at either 80% or 60% of 1 rep max.
All in all, if you have a resistance band and you’re looking to get a bit more glute work into your training, try popping it around your thighs when squatting and it will make the glutes work harder without negatively affecting other muscles.

5. Train quicker to get faster
Here’s an interesting one with slightly surprising results! This final piece of research was designed to compare the effects of different forms of hamstring training on strength, activation and sprint performance. Some of the subjects carried out low volume training with a heavy load but low velocity while others used a resistance band at high velocity. As you would expect, the heavy load training increased 1 rep max strength on the leg curl while there was no difference in the banded group. However, when sprint times were measured both from a static and a flying start, the banded group improved on both, while the subjects using the heavy load saw no improvement. High-velocity training seems to have a better transfer to high velocity athletic activity. If you want to be quick then train quick!

References
1. Williams, T. D., Tolusso, D. V., Fedewa, M. V., & Esco, M. R. (2017) Comparison of Periodized and Non-Periodized Resistance Training on Maximal Strength: A Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine.
2. Morton, R. W., Murphy, K. T., McKellar, S. R., Schoenfeld, B. J., Henselmans, M., Helms, E., Aragon, A. A., Devries, M. C., Banfield, L., Krieger, J. W., & Phillips, S. M. (2017) A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training- induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine.
3. Grgic, J., & Mikulic, P. (2017) Caffeine ingestion acutely enhances muscular strength and power but not muscular endurance in resistance-trained men. European Journal of Sport Science, 1.
4. Spracklin, O. F., Button, D. C., & Halperin, I. (2017)  Looped Band Placed Around Thighs Increases EMG of Gluteal Muscles Without Hindering Performance During Squatting. Journal of Performance Health Research.
5. Janusevicius, D., Snieckus, A., Skurvydas, A., Silinskas, V., Trinkunas, E., Cadefau, J. A., & Kamandulis, S. (2017). Effects of High Velocity Elastic Band versus Heavy Resistance Training on Hamstring Strength, Activation, and Sprint Running Performance. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine