If you have taken Exercise Physiology or majored in Kinesiology you are very familiar with Per-Olof Åstrand MD, PhD, Kaare Rodahl MD, PhD and their Text Book of Work Physiology. Though retired, their text book is still a must on every students book shelf. Per Olof Astrand’ award winning research focused on the oxygen transport system in humans, his co author, Rodahle is listed as one of the outstanding scientists of the 20th Century.
Today the Åstrand Laboratory of Work Physiology, Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, still is a formidable force in the world of exercise science. Recently from their laboratories they studied strength training after endurance training.
The Law of Biogenesis states that life arises from pre-existing life, not from nonliving material. So, when you run you have a self sustaining process, which is called mitochondrial biogenesis. This is an adaptitve proceess that through molecular signalling eventually changes your aerobic fitness. The mitochondria are little organs called organelles within a cell. The mitochondria are the ‘power houses’ of the cell and the mitochondrion is the key regulator of the metabolic activity.
What has not been known to coaches is that endurance exercise followed by strength training amplifies the signaling response of mitochondrial biogenesis greater than just endurance exercise alone. When you strength train following something aerobic you approximately double a cascade of protein synthesis molecules. One in-particular is called mTor.
The protein mTor crosstalks with the endurance response to exercise after strength training giving you a greater overall fitness response. In other words, if you run followed by strength training the endurance effect seems to be greater and more beneficial than just running alone according to the 2011 data coming out of exercise physiology.
Lifting after running and lifting after practice can be a good thing to Get Strong.
