Daily hormonal and neuromuscular responses to intensive strength training in 1 week

Daily adaptive responses in the neuromuscular and endocrine systems to a 1-week very intensive strength training period with two training sessions per day were investigated in eight elite weight lifters. The morning and the afternoon sessions resulted in acute decreases (P less than 0.05-0.01) in maximal isometric strength and in the maximal neural activation (iEMG) of the leg extensor muscles, but the basic levels remained unaltered during the entire training period. Significant (P less than 0.05-0.01) acute increases in serum total and free testosterone levels were found during the afternoon sessions. During the 1-week training period, serum total and free testosterone concentrations decreased gradually (P less than 0.05-0.001) as observed in the basic morning values before the sessions, but after 1 day of rest serum total and free testosterone reached (P less than 0.01 and 0.05) the pretraining level. The sessions resulted also in acute changes (P less than 0.05-0.01) in serum cortisol and somatotropin concentrations, but the basic morning levels did not change during the training period. The present findings suggest that during a short period of intense strength training the changes especially in serum testosterone concentrations indicate the magnitude of physiologic stress of training. The acute changes in serum hormone concentrations during a period of a few days do not, however, necessarily directly imply the changes in performance capacity. A longer period of follow-up lasting a few weeks is probably needed if an individual trainability status of a strength athlete is to be evaluated on the basis of the hormone determinations.