Effects of Circuit Resistance Training with Crocus sativus Supplementation on Insulin and Estradiol Hormones Response

Abstract

Aims: During recent years, consumption of nutritional supplements has become popular in the athletes to enhance muscle power, function, and hypertrophy. Since the chemical supplements cause side-effects, many experts focus on the traditional medications. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of short-term circular resistance exercises with Crocus sativus Supplementation on the insulin and estradiol levels. Materials & Methods: In the semi-experimental study, 44 untrained healthy men were selected from the students of Mazandaran University using census method in 2013. The samples were divided into four groups including “waterexercise”, “petal sweat-exercise”, “style-exercise”, and “stigma-exercise”. 2week resistance exercises consisted of 12 stations (30 seconds with 40% of a maximum repetition per station; 5 sessions a week). 500mg Crocus sativus were daily consumed two times in the morning immediately after the exercises. Blood sampling was done before and 48 hours after the last session. Data was analyzed by SPSS 20 software using one-way ANOVA, Bonferroni post-hoc, and dependent T tests. Findings: There was a significant increase in the estradiol level in stigmaexercise group than water-exercise group (p=0.007). There were significant increases in the plasma estradiol concentration in each stigma-exercise and style-exercise groups after the exercises (p 0.05). Conclusion: Circular resistance exercises with Crocus sativus supplementation lead to no change in insulin concentration. Nevertheless, consumption of the stigma of Crocus sativus flower can empower the effects of the resistance exercises and enhance estradiol.