Acute physiological responses with varying load or time under tension during a squat exercise: A randomized cross-over design
Erica F.F. Corradi Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Articles August 6, 2020
Objectives
Despite advancements in resistance training (RT) methods, the acute physiological responses to time under tension (TUT) and load on acute metabolic and neuromuscular responses remains poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate how TUT or resistance load impact muscular activation and blood lactate during an RT session.
Design
A randomized cross-over design.
Methods
Participants performed a squat exercise in three different conditions: baseline protocol (B PRO; three sets of eight repetitions with four second repetitions at 60% of 1RM) long duration protocol (LD PRO: six second repetitions) and high load protocol (HL PRO: 70% 1RM).
Results
Muscular activation of the vastus lateralis and biceps femoris, and blood lactate were assessed. Blood lactate was ∼19% and ∼26% higher after set one and three in LD PRO compared to B PRO ( P ≤ 0.011) and ∼17% higher for LD PRO compared to HL PRO ( P = 0.002). Additionally, blood lactate was ∼17% higher for HL PRO compared to B PRO after the third set of exercise ( P = 0.003).
Vastus lateralis activation was ∼10% higher for HL PRO compared to B PRO and LD PRO for sets one and two. Biceps femoris activation was ∼17% higher for HL PRO compared to B PRO for set one ( P = 0.023) while for set two HL PRO was greater than B PRO and LD PRO (∼19% and ∼14%, respectively; P ≤ 0.007).
Conclusions
Squatting with higher TUT caused a greater impact on the metabolic responses than lower TUT or higher loads, whereas an increase in training load resulted in greater muscle activation than higher TUT or lower training load.