Effects of Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Training Volume and Pleasure Responses in the Back Squat Exercise Following a Bench Press.

ABSTRACT: Rodrigues, GM, Machado, S, Faria Vieira, LA, Ramalho de Oliveira, BR, Jesus Abreu, MA, Marquez, G, Maranhão Neto, GA, and Lattari, E. Effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation on training volume and pleasure responses in the back squat exercise following a bench press. J Strength Cond Res 36(11): 3048-3055, 2022-This study aimed to investigate the effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) on volume-load and pleasure responses in a back squat following a bench press. Twelve male subjects advanced in resistance training (RT) (age, 25.5 ± 4.4 years) completed 2 experimental trials in a counterbalanced crossover design: a-tDCS and sham conditions. The stimulus was applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 20 minutes using a 2-mA current intensity in a-tDCS condition and 1 minute of active stimulus in the sham condition. Immediately after stimulation, subjects performed the bench press followed by the back squat. The exercise protocol consisted of 3 sets of maximum repetitions at an intensity of 80% of 1 repetition maximum. The volume-load, perceived pleasure, and arousal responses were measured during the RT protocol. The results indicated that volume-load was higher in the a-tDCS condition than in the sham condition for both exercises ( p = 0.02), with large effect for the back squat ( p = 0.045; d = 0.96). The higher volume-load was obtained by increasing the number of repetitions across all sets for the bench press ( p ≤ 0.0001) and only in the first set for the back squat ( p = 0.01). The circumplex model analysis showed a higher pleasure in the bench press and a tendency toward a higher pleasure in the a-tDCS condition. Anodal tDCS may be used as an ergogenic resource for increasing the back squat volume after performing the bench press in resistance-trained male subjects.

Two-year citations of JAPPL original articles: evidence of a relative age effect.

Several indicators have been used to analyze scientific journals, with the impact factor and the number of citations in a 2-yr calendar time frame (2-YRC) being the most common factors. However, considering that the Journal of Applied Physiology (JAPPL) appears monthly and that calculations of these indicators are based on citations of papers published in previous years, we hypothesized that articles published at the beginning of the year would be cited more in the 2-YRC compared with those appearing in the last issues of the year, a phenomena known as a relative age effect. Our objective was to confirm the existence of a relative age effect in the 2-YRC for original articles published in JAPPL. From 2005 to 2008, a total of 1,726 original articles were published, according to the Web of Science, and 9,973 citations in 2-YRC, varying from 0 to 45, with a mean of 5.78 for individual papers. Although there were no differences in the number of original articles published in a given month (P = 0.99), the 2-YRC varied considerably throughout the year, being higher for those earlier issues of the year, as shown by the linear regression analysis (r(2) = 0.76; P < 0.001). The 2-YRC began at 6.62 during the first 3 mo of the year, dropping by 10% at each 3-mo period. In summary, the longer an article has been out there, the more citations it collects. The relative age effect is a potential confounding variable for the assessment and interpretation of 2-YRC (using calendar years) from JAPPL original articles.