A comparison of the effects of interval and continuous training programs on the proportion of red, white and intermediate muscle fibers of the medial gastrocnemius of rats

Selig, Peter George (1978) A comparison of the effects of interval and continuous training programs on the proportion of red, white and intermediate muscle fibers of the medial gastrocnemius of rats. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Previous studies have shown that the proportions of red and white fibers in a muscle can be altered following continuous and interval training. Succinic dehydrogenase and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide diaphorase activity was studied histochemically to analyse the changes taking place in the fiber proportions. -- Male albino rats were subjected to interval and continuous training programs at 60% and 50% levels of minimal activity over a seven week period. The intervals were 110 seconds in length. The number of intervals swum and the length of continuous swim periods was determined every sixth training day by swimming the animals to exhaustion and then taking 60% and 50% of the maximum swim times to exhaustion. This gave the number of intervals and the length of the continuous swim periods to be used during the next five training days. -- After seven weeks of training the medial gastrocnemius of the left leg was excised and stained to sow succinic dehydrogenase and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide diaphorase activity. Microphotographs were taken of cross-sections of the medial red and peripheral white regions of the gastrocnemius. The proportion of red, white and intermediate fibers in each region was determined. -- It was found that a significant increase in red fibers and a significant decrease in white fibers occurred in both regions when the exercise groups were compared to the control group. No significant difference was found in the fiber proportions when the 60% and 50% interval groups were compared. -- In comparing the combined interval and the combined continuous groups it was found that interval training caused a significantly greater increase in red fibers and decrease in white fibers than the continuous training. This would indicate that interval training was the better method of training for developing the aerobic capacity of the muscle at the cellular level.

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