[quote]SteelyD wrote:
ZZzzzzzzSNORK!!!
Way to suck all the goddammed fun out of weight lifting
neuronal pathways link… x amt of insulin resistance… IRS-2 tyrosine phosphorylation…
inflammatory cytokines that inhibit… blah blah blah shut the fuck up and lift blah blah blah[/quote]
Well, the good thing at least is that there’s evidence out there to suggest that various forms of exercise have beneficial effects on modulating adipokine expression. Not a whole lot, from what I’ve seen… at least, that as far as evidence that a) comes directly from humans, and b) occurs independent of weight loss, but it’s not something I’ve looked into too much because weight loss has been so clearly demonstrated to induce long-term insulin sensitization that it doesn’t make sense to ignore it for any other single approach.
From what I recall, exercise seems to promote insulin sensitization commonly via upregulating the expression of adiponectin, an anti-hyperglycemic adipokine and often through reducing leptin, anther anti-hyper one that is seen to be elevated in the overweight and obese (causing resistance). Studies on the pro-inflammatory, pro-hyperglycemic ones (TNF-a, IL-6, RBP4, whatevsies) tended to be a little more hit-or-miss, from what I remember, but then this is a cutting-edge area of research and there is so much room for academic growth here – not only as far the effect of exercise on adipokine modulation, but also wrt their feedback on one another and even their general physiological effects – that it’s tough to say what the big picture looks really like. Obviously, as stronghold’s posts shows, we know quite a bit about what goes wrong from a biochemical standpoint to result in insulin resistance, but putting it all together to fit within the context of our discussion isn’t something I think we can confidently do with the current extent of the scientific literature.
Again, though, Y (or someone elses’s) MMV because this isn’t something I’ve looked too much into. We already have a silver bullet for restoring insulin sensitivity for most people; it just takes some effort and discipline.
Adipokines aside, it’s been known for AT LEAST 30 years that even single bouts of exercise can result in acute improvements in glucose metabolism (lasting up to 3 days, or so), but, again, the issue with the research seems to be determining whether or not long-term changes can be credited to some effect (direct or indirect) on weight loss, the cumulative effects of the exercise program, residual effects of the last exercise session or a combination of everything.
What we KNOW is that dropping fat will independently lead to long-term changes in insulin sensitization (i.e., one can maintain sensitivity even after they stop dropping weight and exercising)… what seems to be pretty hazy so far is whether or not one can exercise themselves “out” of insulin resistance without modulating body weight in the process (i.e., whether or not the aggregate effect of exercise can lead to long-term changes in glucose metabolism that persist after cessation of regular physical activity). I wouldn’t bet on it, personally.
So, for those of us who routinely exercise, we clearly have a safety net in place for insulin sensitivity barring obesity and shit-tier diets. But, remember that most of the evidence out there focuses on an improving glucose metabolism when it is in at pathological or near-pathological stage, NOT the effects of optimizing it’s function for the biggest muscles and least fat possible (which is what we want as bodybuilders and what the focus is really on).
Right now, I would bet that the most credible resources we can both find AND rely on (so far) aren’t peer-reviewed studies, but the successful gym rats who have gone from “full house” to “big and lean” and can offer their input on how that changed the game for them. Yes, yes, n=1 and all that, but get two of them together and we have n=2, etc, etc. Sooner or later SOMETHING should jump out.
