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Sigma Nutrition Radio

#539: How Does Carbohydrate Availability Impact Resistance Training? – Cliff Harvey, PhD & Eric Helms, PhD

Sigma Nutrition Radio

Danny Lennon

Sigma, Dietetics, Evidencebased, Nutrition, Training, Health & Fitness, Science, Diet, Fitness, Evidence, Bodybuilding, Health

4.8 • 626 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2024

⏱️ 93 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some suggest that, since individual lifts or short-duration efforts don’t rely heavily on glycogen, carb intake might not be critical for strength athletes. If glycogen depletion isn’t a pressing issue, could athletes thrive on lower-carb diets without sacrificing performance? Or could there be overlooked benefits to having greater carbohydrate availablily in those sessions?

  • In strength sports and resistance training, do carbohydrates play an important role or not?
  • Are carbohydrates really necessary for resistance training?
  • How does training volume, intensity and goals impact the carbohydrate requirement?

In this episode, Dr. Cliff Harvey and Dr. Eric Helms offer their perspectives on this interesting and practically important issue.

Timestamps:

  • [00:03:40] Do carbohydrates have a role in resistance training?
  • [00:12:23] Do individuals respond differently?
  • [00:18:25] Recent research insights
  • [00:35:08] Carbohydrate “sensing” and performance
  • [00:47:17] How to think about carbohydrate needs
  • [00:54:06] Changing views on nutrient timing
  • [01:06:37] Ketogenic diets and muscle gain
  • [01:22:02] Dietary patterns and health – Are macronutrients that important?
  • [01:31:42] Key ideas segment (Premium-only)

Links:

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio. This is episode 539 of the podcast. My name is Danny Lennon and you are very

0:24.2

welcome to the show. Today this is going to be a special collaboration episode and this is the

0:31.7

first of a series of episodes that over the next while I will be doing with the guys from the Iron Culture

0:38.9

podcast, so Dr. Eric Helms and Dr. Eric Trexler, where we will be having discussions with members

0:47.0

of the board of the Sports Nutrition Association, of which both Dr. Helms and Dr. Trexler are a member

0:53.9

of as well as myself.

0:55.9

And we're going to be having discussions in this collaborative environment.

1:01.0

And so it's going to be a mixing of the podcasts and hopefully will bring you some

1:06.0

worthwhile and fruitful discussions off the back of that.

1:09.6

I really think you're going to enjoy it.

1:11.4

And as you will, I'm sure, see not only are the guys excellent hosts with excellent

1:17.5

questions, but also have excellent point of views to add into these conversations.

1:21.8

And I'm really excited about this.

1:23.8

So hopefully with some of these, you are going to enjoy.

1:27.2

The episode today is a discussion

1:29.9

with Dr. Cliff Harvey and alongside me today will be Dr. Eric Helms and we'll be putting some

1:36.3

talking points to Dr. Harvey about the role of carbohydrates specifically as they relate to

1:42.4

resistance training, strength training, strength

1:45.6

based sports, bodybuilding, these types of areas where carbohydrate not necessarily is the limiting

1:52.6

factor to performance sometimes.

1:54.9

This leaves open some interesting questions about whether they're necessary at all, whether

1:59.3

they have the same benefit as in other sports,

...

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