Glycogen Depletion Question

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brucedelaney
brucedelaney Posts: 433 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I know that you can fully deplete the glycogen in your muscles through resistance training each major muscle group.

Can you achieve total depletion through Cardio as well?

Replies

  • trail_rnr
    trail_rnr Posts: 337 Member
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    You bet. You know that "wall" that long distance runners talk about? It's often a glycogen depletion problem. (For many, myself included, it's a brain problem :tongue: )

    Some ultra runners purposely train to depletion as a way to train the body to run on less fuel. I'm talking about people who run 50-100 miles at a shot. The jury is out on whether this acheives the desired effect; many studies and opinion (scientific and bogus) both ways. I think it is highly individual, and highly dependent on your natural endurance economy/VO2 max (which can be improved through training).

    I like food and the muscle that I do have too much (and not feeling fuzzy headed) to ever go to depletion. I seem to do OK with my nurtition during long events (I do 50 miles, max) and I recover quickly.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    Yes, its why hitting the "wall" at the 20+ mile mark in a marathon is so common.

    How long & hard would one have to lift to reach glycogen depletion?
  • Ambrogio1
    Ambrogio1 Posts: 518 Member
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    100 miles is insane
  • brucedelaney
    brucedelaney Posts: 433 Member
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    How long & hard would one have to lift to reach glycogen depletion?

    Typically you'd be doing 3-4x10-15 rep sets per major muscle group at 80% of your max weight to reach total depletion.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    You bet. You know that "wall" that long distance runners talk about? It's often a glycogen depletion problem. (For many, myself included, it's a brain problem :tongue: )

    Some ultra runners purposely train to depletion as a way to train the body to run on less fuel. I'm talking about people who run 50-100 miles at a shot. The jury is out on whether this acheives the desired effect; many studies and opinion (scientific and bogus) both ways. I think it is highly individual, and highly dependent on your natural endurance economy/VO2 max (which can be improved through training).

    I like food and the muscle that I do have too much (and not feeling fuzzy headed) to ever go to depletion. I seem to do OK with my nurtition during long events (I do 50 miles, max) and I recover quickly.

    And that "second wind" that happens is your body kicking over to burning fat for fuel (it has just ran out of it's immediate fuel)!
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
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    How long & hard would one have to lift to reach glycogen depletion?

    Typically you'd be doing 3-4x10-15 rep sets per major muscle group at 80% of your max weight to reach total depletion.

    Over the span of a few days while eating low carbs, yes. Hence, the need for refeeds.
  • brucedelaney
    brucedelaney Posts: 433 Member
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    How long & hard would one have to lift to reach glycogen depletion?

    Typically you'd be doing 3-4x10-15 rep sets per major muscle group at 80% of your max weight to reach total depletion.

    Over the span of a few days while eating low carbs, yes. Hence, the need for refeeds.

    Yep, just wanted to know if a good cardio session was capable of finishing off the job the day before a refeed.

    Based on what people are saying.... yes it will.
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
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    How long & hard would one have to lift to reach glycogen depletion?

    Typically you'd be doing 3-4x10-15 rep sets per major muscle group at 80% of your max weight to reach total depletion.

    Over the span of a few days while eating low carbs, yes. Hence, the need for refeeds.

    Yep, just wanted to know if a good cardio session was capable of finishing off the job the day before a refeed.

    Based on what people are saying.... yes it will.

    Yep it will. When I was doing UD 2.0 by Lyle McDonald, I would do 10 minutes of post-training cardio HIIT. 30 seconds as fast as I could go, then 15 seconds slow, then 30 seconds fast, then 15 slow. Repeat.
  • Mom_4_More_Muscles
    Mom_4_More_Muscles Posts: 46
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    And that "second wind" that happens is your body kicking over to burning fat for fuel (it has just ran out of it's immediate fuel)!

    THAT's the rush I love in my spinning class. It's like lightning strikes the system... cold rush on the inside, sweatin' my a** off.
  • brucedelaney
    brucedelaney Posts: 433 Member
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    How long & hard would one have to lift to reach glycogen depletion?

    Typically you'd be doing 3-4x10-15 rep sets per major muscle group at 80% of your max weight to reach total depletion.

    Over the span of a few days while eating low carbs, yes. Hence, the need for refeeds.

    Yep, just wanted to know if a good cardio session was capable of finishing off the job the day before a refeed.

    Based on what people are saying.... yes it will.

    Yep it will. When I was doing UD 2.0 by Lyle McDonald, I would do 10 minutes of post-training cardio HIIT. 30 seconds as fast as I could go, then 15 seconds slow, then 30 seconds fast, then 15 slow. Repeat.

    Exactly the reason I was asking about it. I'm planning to do a modification on the UD2.0

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