The Effect of a Wingate Sprint with High-Intensity Circuit Weight Training on Growth Hormone Responses in Resistance Trained Young Males.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of adding a Wingate sprint (W) before or after a circuit weight training (C) session on acute serum human growth hormone (HGH) concentration. Seven resistance-trained men performed a familiarization trial followed by 4 experimental trials: (a) W trial; (b) C trial; (c) WC trial; and (d) CW trial. The W resistance was set at 0.7 Nm/kg body mass. The C required a warm-up set of 10 repetitions at 40% 1RM and 2 sets of 10 repetitions at 70% 1RM consisting of bench press, bent-over barbell row, smith machine squat, seated dumbbell shoulder press, Romanian deadlift, and latissimus dorsi pull-down. Serum HGH was measured pre- and 5 (P5), 10 (P10), 20 (P20), 30 (P30), 45 (P45), and 60 min (P60) post-trial. All trials resulted in a significant increase in serum HGH compared to rest (P<0.05). The CW trial resulted in: (a) significantly higher serum HGH than the W and the C trials at P20 (P<0.05); (b) significantly higher HGH compared to the C and the WC trials at P30 (P<0.05); (c) significantly higher HGH area under the curve (AUC) compared to the C and the W trials (P<0.05); and (d) significantly higher peak HGH compared to the C trial (P<0.05). These results suggest that adding a Wingate sprint following a circuit weight training session may be particularly effective at acutely increasing serum HGH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]