Carbohydrate supplementation attenuates decrement in performance in overtrained rats

Carbohydrate ingestion at the end of a single exercise is recognized as delaying fatigue and accelerating recovery, but whether chronic ingestion can prevent overtraining during periods of intense training has not yet been elucidated. This study aimed to determine whether carbohydrate supplementation minimizes overtraining in Wistar rats. The animals underwent 11 weeks of training (running) on a treadmill, and the last 3 weeks were designed to induce overtraining. One group was supplemented with carbohydrates (EX-CHO) (n = 13), 1 group had no supplementation (EX) (n = 10), and a third group remained inactive (C) (n = 9). Performance tests were given before training (Pr1) and at the 8th (Pr2) and 11th (Pr3) training week. Food intake, body weight, testosterone, cortisol, malondialdehyde, creatine kinase, and activities of the PI3-K, Akt-1, mTOR, and GSK-3 enzymes were measured. In the EX group, there was a significant 32.6% performance decrease at Pr3 when compared with Pr2. In addition, at protocol comple...