Cited by 230Muscle metabolism and nutritionSports Performance and TrainingCardiovascular and exercise physiology

Carbohydrate availability and exercise training adaptation: Too much of a good thing?

Bartlett, Jonathan D., Hawley, John A., Morton, James P.·2015·European Journal of Sport Science

Abstract

Traditional nutritional approaches to endurance training have typically promoted high carbohydrate (CHO) availability before, during and after training sessions to ensure adequate muscle substrate to meet the demands of high daily training intensities and volumes. However, during the past decade, data from our laboratories and others have demonstrated that deliberately training in conditions of reduced CHO availability can promote training-induced adaptations of human skeletal muscle (i.e. increased maximal mitochondrial enzyme activities and/or mitochondrial content, increased rates of lipid oxidation and, in some instances, improved exercise capacity). Such data have led to the concept of 'training low, but competing high' whereby selected training sessions are completed in conditions of reduced CHO availability (so as to promote training adaptation), but CHO reserves are restored immediately prior to an important competition. The augmented training response observed with training-low strategies is likely regulated by enhanced activation of key cell signalling kinases (e.g. AMPK, p38MAPK), transcription factors (e.g. p53, PPARδ) and transcriptional co-activators (e.g. PGC-1α), such that a co-ordinated up-regulation of both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes occurs. Although the optimal practical strategies to train low are not currently known, consuming additional caffeine, protein, and practising CHO mouth-rinsing before and/or during training may help to rescue the reduced training intensities that typically occur when 'training low', in addition to preventing protein breakdown and maintaining optimal immune function. Finally, athletes should practise 'train-low' workouts in conjunction with sessions undertaken with normal or high CHO availability so that their capacity to oxidise CHO is not blunted on race day.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/17461391.2014.920926

Cites

48 of 48 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Bartlett, J. D., Hawley, J. A., & Morton, J. P.
Affiliations
Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
Corresponding author
Morton, James P.
Venue
European Journal of Sport Science
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2014-06-19
Volume
15
Issue
1
Pages
3-12
ISSN
  • 1536-7290 (ISSN-L)
  • 1746-1391
OpenAlex
W2002709664
Cited by
230
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 1
FWCI
10.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • European Journal of Sport Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Victoria University Research Repository (Victoria University) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Bank (Australian Catholic University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • Australian Institute of Sport
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Muscle metabolism and nutrition
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Sports Performance and Training
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
Keywords
carbohydrate availability, endurance training adaptation, skeletal muscle, mitochondrial biogenesis, lipid oxidation, caffeine, protein intake, AMPK, PGC-1α, PPARδ, p53, exercise capacity, carbohydrate oxidation, immune function, protein degradation
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Physiological, Dietary Carbohydrates, Energy Metabolism, Humans, Exercise, Muscle, Skeletal, Athletes, Sports Nutritional Physiological Phenomena

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review