Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 70, Issue 4 1500-1505, Copyright © 1991 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Dietary carbohydrate, muscle glycogen, and power output during rowing training

J. C. Simonsen, W. M. Sherman, D. R. Lamb, A. R. Dernbach, J. A. Doyle and R. Strauss
Exercise Physiology Laboratory, School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210-1284.

The belief that high-carbohydrate diets enhance training capacity (mean power output) has been extrapolated from studies that have varied dietary carbohydrate over a few days and measured muscle glycogen but did not assess power output during training. We hypothesized that a high-carbohydrate (HI) diet (10 g.kg body mass-1.day-1) would promote greater muscle glycogen content and greater mean power output during training than a moderate-carbohydrate (MOD) diet (5 g.kg body mass-1.day-1) over 4 wk of intense twice-daily rowing training. Dietary protein intake was 2 g.kg body mass-1.day-1, and fat intake was adjusted to maintain body mass. Twelve male and 10 female collegiate rowers were randomly assigned to the treatment groups. Training was 40 min at 70% peak O2 consumption (VO2) (A.M.) and either three 2,500-m time trials to assess power output or interval training at 70-90% peak VO2 (P.M.). Mean daily training was 65 min at 70% peak VO2 and 38 min at greater than or equal to 90% peak VO2. Mean muscle glycogen content increased 65% in the HI group (P less than 0.05) but remained constant at 119 mmol/kg in the MOD group over the 4 wk. Mean power output in time trials increased 10.7 and 1.6% after 4 wk in the HI and MOD groups, respectively (P less than 0.05). We conclude that a diet with 10 g carbohydrate.kg body mass-1.day-1 promotes greater muscle glycogen content and greater power output during training than a diet containing 5 g carbohydrate.kg body mass-1.day-1 over 4 wk of intense twice-daily rowing training.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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