Sympathetic Nerve Activity and Strength Gains in Resistance Versus Concurrent Training

Overview

This study examines how the body's stress (sympathetic) nervous system responds to 8 weeks of either strength training alone or strength training combined with endurance (treadmill running) training in previously untrained young men. Skin sympathetic nerve activity, a noninvasive marker of sympathetic nervous system activity, is measured before and after training, along with muscle strength, jumping ability, and heart rate variability. The study investigates whether changes in sympathetic nervous system activity are associated with changes in strength and jumping ability, and whether this relationship differs between men who perform strength training alone versus those who combine strength and endurance training.

This study examined how the body's stress (sympathetic) nervous system responds to 8 weeks of either strength training alone or strength training combined with endurance (treadmill running) training in previously untrained young men. Skin sympathetic nerve activity, a noninvasive marker of sympathetic nervous system activity, was measured before and after training, along with muscle strength, jumping ability, and heart rate variability. The study found that in men who did strength training only, those whose sympathetic nervous system activity increased the most also gained the most strength and jumping ability. This relationship was not seen, and in some cases reversed, in men who combined strength training with endurance training. The findings suggest that adding endurance exercise changes how the nervous system adapts to a strength training program, alongside the well-documented reduction in strength gains seen with combined training (the "interference effect").