Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Apr;13(8):e70302.
doi: 10.14814/phy2.70302.

Unaltered maximal power and submaximal performance correlates with an oxidative vastus lateralis proteome phenotype during tapering in male cyclists

Pieter de Lange  1 , Giuseppe Petito  1 , Hannah L Notbohm  2 , Antonia Giacco  3 , Giovanni Renzone  4 , Elena Silvestri  3 , Arianna Cuomo  1 , Frank Suhr  5 , Thorsten Schiffer  6 , Jonas Zacher  7 , Federica Cioffi  3 , Rosalba Senese  1 , Andrea Scaloni  4 , Moritz Schumann  8 , Wilhelm Bloch  2
Affiliations

Unaltered maximal power and submaximal performance correlates with an oxidative vastus lateralis proteome phenotype during tapering in male cyclists

Pieter de Lange et al. Physiol Rep. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Little is known on how a short-term reduction of training volume changes muscle proteome and physiological parameters. We investigated the impact of halving training volume during regular training of cyclists on physiological parameters in relation to vastus lateralis protein profiles and fiber percentage ratios. Fifteen male cyclists (age: 30.1 ± 9.6 yrs.; VO2max: 59.4 ± 4.4 mL∙kg-1∙min-1; weekly training volume: 8.7 ± 2.3 h) participated in an 11-week training intervention. During 2 weeks after a shared training programme for 9 weeks, a control group continued training and a taper group reduced training volume by 50%. No end-point differences were found for peak power output, maximal oxygen uptake, or peak and mean power in a sprint test (p > 0.05), although in the taper group, muscle proteins involved in mitochondrial aerobic respiration increased whereas those involved in translation, protein catabolism, and actin organization decreased, without between-group differences in type I/type II fiber percentage ratios. Tapering did not decrease power at the first (LT1) and second lactate threshold (LT2) compared to t0, whereas power increased in the control group (LT1: 216 ± 28 W vs. 238 ± 11 W, p = 0.042, LT2: 290 ± 42 W vs. 318 ± 13 W, p = 0.005). Our data indicate that transient 50% training volume reductions may be beneficial for oxidative metabolism in muscle.

Keywords: aerobic capacity; fiber percentage ratio; protein profile; threshold power; training intensity; training volume.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Training design of the 11‐week training intervention. Participants were separated into two groups after the 9‐week loading phase. TID, training intensity distribution. Zone 1, Training intensity below the first lactate threshold (LT1); Zone 2, Training intensity between LT1 and LT2; Zone 3, Training intensity above LT2.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Change in relative VO2max (a), relative peak power output of the ramp test (PPOR, b), first lactate threshold (LT1, c), second lactate threshold (LT2, d), maximal lactate accumulation rate (Vlamax, e) and peak power output in the sprint test (PPOS, f) throughout the intervention period for the tapering and control group. NB: Groups were separated after 9 weeks of training (t9). Absolute p‐values of the differences between conditions are given in the figure.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network for the over‐represented proteins at t11 in the comparison “t0 vs. t11” resulting from Mestascape analysis and subsequent pathway and process enrichment (GO‐enrichment) analysis of the corresponding proteomic results* (a). Protein cluster (C1) identified for the over‐represented proteins at t11 by Molecular Complex Detection algorithm and relative GO‐enrichment analysis of results* (b). *Shown in the following table are the four most significantly enriched Gene Ontology terms (including GO‐Category, GO‐term identifier, description, involved genes, and p‐value).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network for the over‐represented proteins at t9 + 2 in the comparison “t0 vs. t9 + 2” resulting from Mestascape analysis and subsequent pathway and process enrichment (GO‐enrichment) analysis of the corresponding proteomic results* (a). Protein cluster (C1) identified for the over‐represented proteins at t9 + 2 by Molecular Complex Detection algorithm and relative GO‐enrichment analysis of results* (b). *Shown in the following table are the four most significantly enriched Gene Ontology terms (including GO‐Category, GO‐term identifier, description, involved genes, and p‐value).
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network for the down‐represented proteins at t9 + 2 in the comparison “t9 vs. t9 + 2” resulting from Mestascape analysis and subsequent pathway and process enrichment (GO‐enrichment) analysis of the corresponding proteomic results* (a). Protein cluster (C1) identified for the down‐represented proteins at t9 + 2 by Molecular Complex Detection algorithm and relative GO‐enrichment analysis of results* (b). *Shown in the following table are the four most significantly enriched Gene Ontology terms (including GO‐Category, GO‐term identifier, description, involved genes, and p‐value).
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Protein clusters C1 (a) and C2 (b) identified for the over‐represented proteins at t9 + 2 in the comparison “t9 + 2 vs. t11” resulting from Mestascape analysis through the Molecular Complex Detection algorithm and relative GO‐enrichment analysis of the corresponding proteomic results. Shown in the following tables are the four most significantly enriched Gene Ontology terms (including GO‐Category, GO‐term identifier, description, involved genes, and p‐value).
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Protein clusters (C1 (a), C2 (b), C3 (c), and C4 (d)) identified for the down‐represented proteins at t9 + 2 in the comparison “t9 + 2 vs. t11” resulting from Mestascape analysis through the Molecular Complex Detection algorithm and relative GO‐enrichment analysis of the corresponding proteomic results. Shown in the following tables are the most significantly enriched Gene Ontology terms (including GO‐Category, GO‐term identifier, description, involved genes, and p‐value).
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Principal proteomic results based on the binary comparisons described in the present study.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Fiber analysis. (a) Type I /Type II fiber percentage ratios, (b) Fiber‐specific cross‐section areas (μM), and (c) Capillary number per fiber throughout the intervention period between the tapering and the control group. TAP, taper.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Bader, G. D. , & Hogue, C. W. (2003). An automated method for finding molecular complexes in large protein interaction networks. BMC Bioinformatics, 4, 2. 10.1186/1471-2105-4-2 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bosquet, L. , Montpetit, J. , Arvisais, D. , & Mujika, I. (2007). Effects of tapering on performance: A meta‐analysis. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 39(8), 1358–1365. 10.1249/mss.0b013e31806010e0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cho, I. C. , Park, H. B. , Ahn, J. S. , Han, S. H. , Lee, J. B. , Lim, H. T. , Yoo, C. K. , Jung, E. J. , Kim, D. H. , Sun, W. S. , Ramayo‐Caldas, Y. , Kim, S. G. , Kang, Y. J. , Kim, Y. K. , Shin, H. S. , Seong, P. N. , Hwang, I. S. , Park, B. Y. , Hwang, S. , … Lee, J. W. (2019). A functional regulatory variant of MYH3 influences muscle fiber‐type composition and intramuscular fat content in pigs. PLoS Genetics, 15(10), e1008279. 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008279 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Coggan, A. R. (2003). Training and Racing with a Power Meter (pp. 123–145). USA Cycling.
    1. Egan, B. , & Zierath, J. R. (2013). Exercise metabolism and the molecular regulation of skeletal muscle adaptation. Cell Metabolism, 17(2), 162–184. 10.1016/j.cmet.2012.12.012 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources