Sarah R Jackman

University of Exeter | UoE · Department of Sport and Health Sciences

Purpose Shatavari is an understudied but widely available herbal supplement. It contains steroidal saponins and phytoestrogenic compounds. We previously showed that 6 weeks of shatavari supplementation improved handgrip strength and increased markers of myosin contractile function. Mechanistic insights into shatavari’s actions are limited. Therefor...

Shatavari has long been used as an Ayurvedic herb for women’s health, but empirical evidence for its effectiveness has been lacking. Shatavari contains phytoestrogenic compounds that bind to the estradiol receptor. Postmenopausal estradiol deficiency contributes to sarcopenia and osteoporosis. In a randomised double-blind trial, 20 postmenopausal w...

Introduction: Montmorency cherry concentrate (MCC) supplementation enhances functional recovery from exercise, potentially due to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. However, to date, supporting empirical evidence for these mechanistic hypotheses is reliant on indirect blood biomarkers. This study is the first to investigate functional reco...

Background Shatavari has long been used as an Ayurvedic herb for women’s health, but empirical evidence for its effectiveness has been lacking. Shatavari contains phytoestrogenic compounds that bind to the estradiol receptor, and may therefore benefit postmenopausal women since postmenopausal estradiol deficiency contributes to sarcopenia and osteo...

Background: Short-term (<1 wk) muscle disuse lowers daily myofibrillar protein synthesis (MyoPS) rates resulting in muscle mass loss. The understanding of how daily dietary protein intake influences such muscle deconditioning requires further investigation. Objectives: To assess the influence of graded dietary protein intakes on daily MyoPS rate...

Background: Mycoprotein is a fungal-derived sustainable protein-rich food source, and its ingestion results in systemic amino acid and leucine concentrations similar to that following milk protein ingestion. Objective: We assessed the mixed skeletal muscle protein synthetic response to the ingestion of a single bolus of mycoprotein compared with...

Background: Current evidence of metabolic health benefits of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) are limited to longer training periods or conducted in overweight youth. This study assessed 1) fasting and postprandial insulin and glucose before and after 2 weeks of HIIT in healthy adolescent boys, and 2) the relationship between pre interventi...

Introduction: Short-term muscle disuse has been reported to lower both post-absorptive and post-prandial myofibrillar protein synthesis rates. This study assessed the impact of disuse on daily myofibrillar protein synthesis rates following acute (2 days) and more prolonged (7 days) muscle disuse under free living conditions. Methods: Thirteen he...

Purpose: Musculoskeletal injuries necessitate periods of disuse (i.e. limb immobilization) during which rapid skeletal muscle atrophy occurs. The relative susceptibility of different muscles of the thigh to disuse atrophy remains uninvestigated. We assessed muscle disuse atrophy of individual thigh muscles throughout one week of unilateral knee im...

Background : Current evidence of metabolic health benefits of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) are limited to longer training periods or conducted in overweight youth. This study assessed 1) fasting and postprandial insulin and glucose before and after two weeks of HIIT in healthy adolescent boys, and 2) the relationship between pre interven...

Background This study examined whether improvements in fasting and postprandial [insulin], [glucose] and aerobic fitness are possible after two weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in adolescent boys. Methods Seven boys (14.3 ± 0.3 y) completed 6 sessions of HIIT over two weeks. Homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-I...

Flavonoid supplementation improves brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), but it is not known whether flavonoids protect against vascular dysfunction induced by ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury and associated respiratory burst. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study, we investigated whether 4 wk supplementation wi...

1) Background: Mucilage within cacao pods contains high levels of polyphenols. We investigated whether consumption of cacao juice enhances recovery of muscle function following intensive knee extension exercise 2) Methods: Ten recreationally active males completed two trials of 10 sets of 10 single leg knee extensions at ~80% one repetition maximum...

Purpose: Repeated cycles of endothelial ischemia-reperfusion injury and the resulting respiratory burst contribute to the irreversible pathophysiology of vascular diseases, and yet, the effects of ischemia reperfusion on vascular function, oxidative stress, and nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability have not been assessed simultaneously. Therefore, thi...

Background: Oxidative stress and inflammation may contribute to anabolic resistance in response to protein and exercise in older adults. We investigated whether consumption of montmorency cherry concentrate (MCC) increased anabolic sensitivity to protein ingestion and resistance exercise in healthy older men. Methods: Sixteen healthy older men w...

New findings: What is the central question of this study? What are the initial metabolic and molecular events that underpin bed rest-induced skeletal muscle deconditioning, and what is the contribution of energy balance? What is the main finding and its importance? A single day of bed rest, irrespective of energy balance, did not lead to overt cha...

Background Caffeine has been shown to enhance exercise performance and capacity. The mechanisms remain unclear but are suggested to relate to adenosine receptor antagonism, resulting in increased central motor drive, reduced perception of effort, and altered peripheral processes such as enhanced calcium handling and extracellular potassium regulati...

This study examined the time course of adaptions in insulin sensitivity (IS) in adolescent boys after acute high intensity interval exercise (HIIE) and moderate intensity exercise (MIE). Eight boys (15.1±0.4 y) completed three 3-day experimental trials in a randomised order: 1) 8 x 1 minute cycling at 90 % peak power with 75 s recovery (HIIE); 2) c...

The ingestion of intact protein or essential amino acids (EAA) stimulates mechanistic target of rapamycin complex-1 (mTORC1) signaling and muscle protein synthesis (MPS) following resistance exercise. The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of myofibrillar-MPS to ingestion of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) only (i.e., without...

Assessment of plasma insulin and glucose outcomes is important in paediatric studies aimed at reducing future risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The aims of this study are to determine the between-method agreement and the day-to-day reliability of fasting and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)-derived estimates of insulin sensitivi...

The purpose of this study was to assess the acute effect of high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) and moderate-intensity exercise (MIE) on glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity and fat oxidation in young boys. Eleven boys (8.8 ± 0.8 y) completed three conditions: 1) HIIE; 2) work-matched MIE; and 3) rest (CON) followed by an oral glucose toleran...

We aimed to study whether short-duration vibration exercise or football sessions of two different durations acutely changed plasma markers of bone turnover and muscle strain. Inactive premenopausal women ( n=56 ) were randomized to complete a single bout of short (FG15) or long duration (FG60) small sided football or low magnitude whole body vibrat...

Purpose: Monitoring mood state is a useful tool for avoiding non-functional overreaching (NFOR). Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is implicated in stress-related mood disorders. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of intensified training-induced mood disturbance on plasma BDNF concentrations at rest and in respon...

To examine the influence of exercise intensity on postprandial health outcomes in adolescents when exercise is accumulated throughout the day. 19 adolescents (9 male, 13.7±0.4 years old) completed three 1-day trials in a randomised order: (1) rest (CON); or four bouts of (2) 2×1min cycling at 90% peak power with 75s recovery (high-intensity interva...

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) improves traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in adolescents, but no study has identified the influence of HIIT on endothelial and autonomic function in this group. Thirteen 13-14 y old adolescents (6 girls) completed six HIIT sessions over two weeks. Each training session consisted of 8-10 x...

Acute exercise transiently improves endothelial function, and protects the vasculature from the deleterious effects of a high fat meal (HFM). We sought to identify whether this response is dependent on exercise intensity in adolescents. Twenty adolescents (10 male, 14.3 ± 0.3 y) completed three 1-day trials: 1) rest (CON); 2) 8x1 min cycling at 90%...

Background/Aims Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is widely recognised as a multi-system disease that extends beyond the lung and can further impair functional capacity, including that of the musculoskeletal system. While it has been reported that these changes may contribute to exercise limitation and disability, there has been little r...

Purpose: The effect of exercise intensity and sex on postprandial risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adolescents is unknown. We examined the effect of a single bout of work-matched high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) and moderate-intensity exercise (MIE) on postprandial triacylglycerol (TAG) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) in adolesc...

Objectives: High-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) may offer a time efficient means to improve health outcomes compared to moderate-intensity exercise (MIE). This study examined the acute effect of HIIE compared to a work-matched bout of MIE on glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity (IS), resting fat oxidation and exercise enjoyment in adolescent...

This case-control study investigated the feasibility of street football as a health-enhancing activity for homeless men, specifically the musculoskeletal effects of 12 weeks of training. Twenty-two homeless men participated in the football group (FG) and 10 served as controls (C). Plasma osteocalcin, TRACP5b, leptin, and postural balance were measu...

Purpose The present study investigated the effects of 16 weeks of small-volume, small-sided soccer training (soccer group (SG) n = 13) and oscillating whole-body vibration training (vibration group (VG) n = 17) on body composition, aerobic fitness and muscle PCr kinetics in healthy inactive premenopausal women in comparison with an inactive control...

To examine the physical capacity and physiological response to the Yo-Yo Intermittent Endurance level 2 test (IE2) for untrained individuals and trained male soccer players, and to investigate the determinants of intense intermittent exercise performance. Thirty-four healthy untrained males (UTR) and fifteen age-matched trained soccer players (TR)...

Abstract The present study investigated the heart rate (HR) response to various types of physical education (PE) activities for 8- to 9-year-olds (five school classes, n = 93) and the fitness effects of a short-term PE training programme (three of the five classes, n = 59) with high compared to low-to-moderate aerobic intensity. HR was recorded dur...

We recently presented an integrating model of the curvature constant of the hyperbolic power-time relationship (W') that permits the calculation of the W' balance (W'BAL) remaining at any time during intermittent exercise. While a relationship between recovery power and the rate of W' recovery was demonstrated, the effect of the length of work or r...

The intake of whey, compared with casein and soy protein intakes, stimulates a greater acute response of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) to protein ingestion in rested and exercised muscle. We characterized the dose-response relation of postabsorptive rates of myofibrillar MPS to increasing amounts of whey protein at rest and after exercise in resis...

This randomized controlled study investigated the effectiveness of soccer and Zumba on fitness and health indicators in female participants recruited from a workplace. One hundred seven hospital employees were cluster-randomized to either a soccer group (SG), Zumba group (ZG), or control group (CG). Intervention effects for the two training groups...

The present study examined whether a high protein diet prevents the attenuated leukocyte redistribution in response to acute exercise caused by a large volume of high-intensity exercise training. Eight cyclists (VO2max: 64.2 ± 6.5 mL kg(-1)·min(-1)) undertook two separate weeks of high-intensity training while consuming either a high protein diet (...

Abstract We examined effects of a 3-month football training programme in overweight children using comprehensive echocardiography and peripheral arterial tonometry. Twenty preadolescent overweight children (17 boys, 3 girls aged 8-12 yrs; body mass index [BMI] ≥ 85(th) percentile) participated in a structured 3-month football training programme, co...

Abstract We investigated the musculoskeletal health profile of elite female football players (ET) in comparison to untrained (UT) young women subjected to 16 weeks of football training (2 × 1 h per week). DXA scans, blood sampling, sprint testing and Flamingo postural balance testing were carried out for 27 Danish national team players and 28 untra...

Recent studies have suggested that dietary inorganic nitrate (NO(3) (-)) supplementation may improve muscle efficiency and endurance exercise tolerance but possible effects during team sport-specific intense intermittent exercise have not been examined. We hypothesized that NO(3) (-) supplementation would enhance high-intensity intermittent exercis...

Introduction: The present study investigated the fitness and health effects of medium-term soccer training for untrained hypertensive middle-age men. Methods: Thirty-three untrained males (31-54 yr) with mild-to-moderate hypertension were randomized 2:1 to a soccer training group (STG, two 1-h sessions per week, n = 22, 68% on medication) and a...

We examined whether exercise-induced lymphocytosis and lymphocytopenia are impaired with high-intensity training. Eight trained cyclists (VO(2max) = 64.2 ± 6.5 mL · kg(-1) · min(-1)) undertook 1 wk of normal-intensity training and a second week of high-intensity training. On day 7 of each week, participants performed a cycling task, consisting of 1...

Non-technical summary A single bout of exercise stimulates the production of new muscle proteins. Furthermore, ingesting protein in close proximity to exercise enhances the metabolic response. Long-term exercise training promotes muscle adaptation, and the mode of exercise performed determines the type of proteins that are made. To date, the types...

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of increased protein intake on short-term decrements in endurance performance during a block of high-intensity training. Trained male cyclists (VO(2max) = 64.2 ± 6.5 mL·kg(-1)·min(-1)) completed two 3-wk trials both divided equally into normal (NOR), intensified (INT), and recovery (REC) tr...

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation during recovery from intense eccentric exercise. Twenty-four non-weight-trained males were assigned to one of two groups: one group (supplementary, SUP) ingested BCAA beverages (n = 12); the second group (placebo, PLA) ingested artificially flavore...