Oral contraceptives enhance muscle growth during strength training 💪📈
An interesting finding for female athletes.
Effect of Oral Contraceptive Use on Muscle Hypertrophy Following Strength Training
Study Details
This new study investigated the effects of oral contraceptive (OC) use on…
🏋️♀️ Muscle strength
💪 Muscle hypertrophy
…during 12-weeks strength training in young adult women 🗓️
(across 3 menstrual cycles in the non-OC users - control group)
Key Findings
Both OC users and non-users experienced gains in lean mass and muscle strength 📈
However, the OC group demonstrated significantly greater increases in…
💪 Arm lean mass (5.5% vs 2.9%)
🦵 Vastus lateralis hypertrophy (10.0% vs. 5.3%)
…vs the non-OC group.
But there were no differences in strength between groups ❌
👉 other markers were similar between the groups including appetite, dietary intake, vitality, motivation to exercise, and perceived recovery
Although, the OC group slept on average 42-min longer per day 💤
Conclusion
These results suggest that OC use can potentiate gains from strength training 📈
Further research required (and a potential link with sleep to investigate) but very interesting findings 🤔