Acute hormonal responses to two different fatiguing heavy-resistance protocols in male athletes.

To examine endogenous hormonal responses to heavy-resistance exercise, ten male strength athletes performed two fatiguing but different types of sessions on separate days. In session A the loads for the leg extensor muscles in the squat-lift exercise were maximal so that the subjects performed 20 sets at 1 repetition maximum (RM) (20 x 1 RM x 100%), whereas during session B the loads were submaximal (70%) but the subjects performed each of the 10 sets until the RM (i.e., 10 repetitions/set or 10 x 10 x 70%). The recovery time between the sets was always 3 min. A decrease of 10.3 +/- 4.7% (P < 0.001) occurred in the squat-lift in 1 RM during session A, whereas session B led to a decrease…