Effects of Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Training Volume and Pleasure Responses in the Back Squat Exercise Following a Bench Press

Abstract

Rodrigues, GM, Machado, S, Faria Vieira, LA, Ramalho de Oliveira, BR, Jesus Abreu, MA, Marquez, G, Maranhão Neto, GA, and Lattari, E. Effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation on training volume and pleasure responses in the back squat exercise following a bench press. J Strength Cond Res 36(11): 3048–3055, 2022—This study aimed to investigate the effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) on volume-load and pleasure responses in a back squat following a bench press. Twelve male subjects advanced in resistance training (RT) (age, 25.5 ± 4.4 years) completed 2 experimental trials in a counterbalanced crossover design: a-tDCS and sham conditions. The stimulus was applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 20 minutes using a 2-mA current intensity in a-tDCS condition and 1 minute of active stimulus in the sham condition. Immediately after stimulation, subjects performed the bench press followed by the back squat. The exercise protocol consisted of 3 sets of maximum repetitions at an intensity of 80% of 1 repetition maximum. The volume-load, perceived pleasure, and arousal responses were measured during the RT protocol. The results indicated that volume-load was higher in the a-tDCS condition than in the sham condition for both exercises (p = 0.02), with large effect for the back squat (p = 0.045; d = 0.96). The higher volume-load was obtained by increasing the number of repetitions across all sets for the bench press (p ≤ 0.0001) and only in the first set for the back squat (p = 0.01). The circumplex model analysis showed a higher pleasure in the bench press and a tendency toward a higher pleasure in the a-tDCS condition. Anodal tDCS may be used as an ergogenic resource for increasing the back squat volume after performing the bench press in resistance-trained male subjects.

Acute Effects of Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Resistance and Power Exercises: A Brief Review for Coaches and Practitioners

“…The objective of this study was to review the effects of tDCS on performance in resistance exercises commonly used by the strength and conditioning community. In general, the results showed improvements in training volume when anodal tDCS was applied over DLPFC (3,42,46,47,58,73). In turn, the muscular power output production seemed to increase when anodal tDCS was applied over MC (13,26,43).…”

“…Second, as a brief review, there is a possibility that some study was not included. However, because of the small number of studies on this subject, we believe that at least the most relevant studies were included (3,13,19,26,35,42–44,46,47,58,59,73). Thus, we suggest caution regarding the interpretation and use of anodal tDCS by coaches and RT practitioners.…”

“…The DLPFC seems to play an important role in cognitive control (52). Therefore, the authors hypothesized that these results may be because of several perceptual responses (3,42,44,46,47,58).…”

“…In addition, no association between repetitions and pain perception was found in both conditions (44). Rodrigues et al (58) investigated the effects of DLPFC anodal tDCS before a sequence of bench press and back-squat exercises on the volume load and pleasure responses. Immediately after the stimulation session, subjects performed the bench press followed by the back-squat.…”

“…An important consideration for the use of the tDCS is the time to apply the technique. Current evidence suggests that anodal tDCS is used before performing the resistance exercises (3,13,35,42,43,46,47,58,73). Thus, we suggest using the anodal tDCS as a priming mechanism.…”