Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Rationale: Aging leads to physical disabilities and muscle quality [MQ] (muscle strength[MS]/muscle mass[MM]) decline. These impartments induce a reduction in the quality of life and increased risk of falls, fractures and physical disability; it is also associated with increased health costs for our society. Hence, finding non-pharmacological solutions to prevent this decline is essential. Resistance training is efficient for improving body composition but not MQ. However, power training (PT) has been proposed to improve MQ. Protein supplementation (PROT) is also known to be able to improve muscle function [MF] and functional capacities [FC]. However, there are controversies regarding the beneficial effects of combining PROT to exercise on MF. Most of these controversies seem to be due to the type or dose of proteins used during these interventions. Objective: To define if PT combined with a slow protein composed with casein protein (PROT-D) is more effective than PT combined with fast protein composed with milk protein (PROT-V) or PT alone in improving MF and FC in elderly men. Methods: 60 elderly men (means ± SD; 69 ± 7yrs) were divided into 3 groups: 1) Placebo with PT (n=19); 2) PROT-D with PT (n=21); 3) PROT-V with PT (n=20). MM, handgrip and knee extensor MS, MQ, FC (SPPB), dietary intake and total energy expenditure have been measured pre- and post- interventions. The interventions consisted of 12 weeks of PT (3 times/week; 1h/session) combined with supplementation (Placebo or PROT-V or PROT-D; 30g/d). P under 0.05 was considered significant. Results: At baseline, no difference was observed between groups. The 3 groups improved significantly their MM, MS, MQ and FC in response to PT. However, no significant difference between groups was observed at the end of the PT. Conclusion: Adding PROT (regardless of the type) to PT did not prove beneficial in improving MF and FC as compared to PT alone in elderly men who ingested at least 0.8g/kgBW/d of proteins.