Proteins: Accommodation vs. Adaptation

1. Proteins: Accommodation vs. Adaptation C.Stefan KINE 628 Summer 2011

2. Background Information: Protein Function: • Serving as enzymes • Building material for bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and organ • Serving as hormones involved in energy metabolism, maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance • Assisting in acid/base balance • Serving as carriers for transport • Provide an energy source Protein Recommendations: • Normal person: 0.8g/kg • Resistance training: 1.6g/kg - 1.7g/kg • Endurance training: 1.2g/kg-1.4g/kg • Adult horse @ Maintenance: 2.8g/kg

3. Background Information: Accommodation: • Altering (or “accommodating”) an individual’s protein intake to meet an increased need induced by the onset of training. Adaptation: • Allowing an individual’s body to naturally “adapt” to the increased needs and eventually shift back to a net protein balance, without any intervention of additional protein.

4. Resistance Training: Accommodation • Accommodation seems to be the best fit for meeting the goals of a resistance training regimen. • Goal is to strictly build muscle mass. • The increased need can be met by supplementing with more protein. • Without additional protein, the muscle that an individual is looking to build will be (in part) what the body feeds on for energy, thus rendering the training useless. • Positive protein balance is ideal for building muscle. This allows the body to always use the dietary sources of protein for energy and never find itself in a situation where it has to use internal sources (i.e. muscle) for protein.

5. Resistance Training: Accommodation • An added benefit of having an increased amount of protein is that it has been shown to decrease the onset of fatigue. More research is needed on the CFH (Central Fatigue Hypothesis). • A down side is that protein is expensive. The human body can’t super compensate protein and will secrete what is not needed. From a financial view, most people cannot (and don’t want to) afford watching their money go down the drain, literally. (*Timing will help reduce the amt of waste) • Too much protein can also cause potentially negative side effects including, renal damage, increased lipoproteins which leads to an increased risk of heart disease, dehydration, damage to organs such as the kidneys and liver. (*Only at high levels)

6. Endurance Training: Combination • A combination of both adaptation and accommodation seems to be the best fit for securing the desired outcomes of endurance training. • All training causes adaptation to the body: • First, the body will go through a stage of breaking down the existing parts so that the training can rebuild/reshape the muscles and bones in a fashion that best meets the demands asked within the training. • Once the individual allows for their body to naturally regulate itself and shift back to a steady state net protein balance, (shown on next slide) • Then they can then start to add supplemental protein to their already satisfied system. • The body will be extra sensitive to the additional protein and respond by being able to build up muscle mass (which leads to an increase in muscle strength). • At this point, a person could start to increase the demands within the training and start to accommodate them by increasing the amount of available dietary protein.

7. Endurance Training: Combination Adaptation • Once the individual allows for their body to naturally regulate itself and shift back to a steady state net protein balance

8. Endurance Training: Combination • Along with the breaking down process, there come some risk factors: • Possible decreased immune systems • An increased risk of injury due to either the compromised state of the muscle and bone or the inadequate level of fitness possessed by the individual initially. (Shown on next slide) • As long as the individual is aware of this process and the temporary limitations it comes with (and takes it into account when training), then it should not prove to be detrimental. • This will also allow us to not be wasteful with our proteins. ($$$) • Let’s take the “versus” out and put “and” in.

9. Endurance Training: Combination

10. BIG PICTURE: • …In light of all this, three points are in need of mentioning… • First, overall calories burned is the most important factor when training, regardless of which nutritional method or training regimen that is employed. • Second, individuality is the biggest variable that can have drastic effects on the outcomes. It is important to be knowledgeable on your own personal needs and response so that you can successfully manipulate your body and its systems. • Finally, it is clear that much more research is needed to explore the effects of both methods for individual use and for use in combination.