Improvement in Skeletal Muscle Strength and Plasma Levels of Follistatin and Myostatin Induced by an 8-Week Resistance Training and Epicatechin Supplementation in Sarcopenic Older Adults.

ABSTRACT

To investigate the effects of resistance training and epicatechin supplementation on muscle strength, follistatin, and myostatin in older adults with sarcopenia, a total of 62 males with sarcopenia (68.63 ± 2.86 years) underwent a supervised 8-week randomized controlled trial. Participants were divided into resistance training (RT), epicatechin (EP), resistance training+epicatechin (RT+EP), and placebo (PL) in a double-blind method. A pretest and posttest measurement was conducted. One-way analysis of variance was used to analyze between-group differences. The significantly greatest increase was observed in follistatin, follistatin/myostatin ratio, leg press, and chest press in RT+EP comparing RT, EP, and PL groups, whereas myostatin decreased significantly only in RT+EP and RT groups. However, appendicular muscle mass index and timed up and go test were enhanced significantly in all experimental groups than the PL group (p ≤ .05). Consequently, by comparing the results between three experimental groups, the greatest improvement was detected in the RT+EP group. Therefore, using two interventions simultaneously seems to have a better impact on improving muscle growth factors and preventing the progression of sarcopenia.