European Journal of
Eur J Appl Physiol (1984) 52:255-257
Effect of anaerobic and aerobic exercise of equal duration
and work expenditure on plasma growth hormone levels
W. P. Vanhelfler, R. C. Goofle, and M. W. Raflomski
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine, Downsview, Ontario, Canada
Summary. G r o w t h h o r m o n e ( G H ) and lactic acid
levels were m e a s u r e d in five n o r m a l males before,
during and after two different types of exercise of
nearly equal total duration and w o r k expenditure.
Exercise I (aerobic) consisted of continuous cycling at
100 W for 20 min. Exercise I I (anaerobic) was inter-
mittent cycling for one m i n u t e at 285 W followed by
two minutes of rest, this cycle being r e p e a t e d seven
times. Significant differences ( P < 0.01) were
o b s e r v e d in lactic acid levels at the end of exercise
protocols ( 2 0 m i n ) b e t w e e n the aerobic (I) and
anaerobic (II) exercises (1.96 + 0.33 m M 9 1-1 vs 9.22
+ 0.41 m M . 1-1, respectively). G H levels were
higher in a n a e r o b i c exercise (II) than in aerobic (I) at
the end of the exercise (20 rain) (2.65 + 0.95 ,ug 9 1-1
vs 0.8 + 0.4 ~tg 9 1-1; P < 0.10) and into the r e c o v e r y
period (30 rain) (7.25 + 6.20 ~tg. 1-1 vs 2.5 + 2.9
~tg 9 1-1; P < 0.05, respectively).
Key words: Exercise - Growth hormone - Lac-
tate
Introduction
Previous studies have d e m o n s t r a t e d variable and
inconsistent effects of different types of exercise on
h u m a n growth h o r m o n e ( G H ) plasma levels (Kara-
giorgos et al. 1979; Kinder.mann et al. 1982; K u o p -
pasalmi et al. 1976; Lassare et al. 1974; S h e p h a r d and
Sidney 1975). T h e types of exercise used in these
studies included a wide variety of muscle activities
ranging f r o m running, bicycling, walking, swimming
to cross-country skiing (Shephard and Sidney 1975).
Most of these activities, however, represented only
one type of exercise, an e n d u r a n c e exercise for short
or p r o l o n g e d periods, which was not c o m p a r e d to
Offprint requests to: W. P. Vanhetder at the above address
Applied
Physiology
and Occupational Physiology
9 Springer-Verlag 1984
other types of exercise of equal w o r k load and
duration. W e report that in exercises of equal
duration and w o r k expenditure, an intermittent
anaerobic exercise results in significantly higher
plasma G H levels than a continuous aerobic one.
Material and methods
Five normal men of average age 29.0 + SD = 9.4 years, who have
continuously participated in an exercise program twice weekly,
volunteered as subjects. Their Vo2 max was in the range of 40-43
ml- kg 1. min-i and they fasted for 6 h before the beginning of
our experiment. Two types of cycling exercise (cycle ergometer
Monark) were compared: Exercise I (aerobic), continuous ped-
alling (at 50 rev. min -1) at 100 W for 20 min; and Exercise II
(anaerobic), intermittent cycling, 1 min (at 70 rev 9min -1) at a load
of 285 W followed by 2 min of rest, the cycle being repeated seven
times. All subjects performed both exercises, I and II being
separated by 3 weeks. The subjects pedalled according to the given
pace and the revolutions of the flywheel were counted simulta-
neously. The total external work performed in both exercises was
nearly equal (120.0 kJ vs 119.7 kJ in I and II, respectively) as was
the total duration (20 min). During each session, serial antecubital
venous blood samples were taken via an indwelling catheter at
-10, -3, 4, 7, 10, 16, 20, 30, 60, and 90min with respect to the
beginning of exercise (0 time). GH (double antibody method,
Serono RIA kit) and lactate (Sigma lactate kit) levels in the plasma
were determined. Values are expressed as the mean + standard
deviation and compared statistically by the paired Student's
t-test.
Results
Lactic acid increased continuously duing anaerobic
exercise (Fig. 1) to a level of 9.22 + 0.41 mM- 1-1 at
the end of the exercise. This was significantly higher
(P < 0.01) than the c o r r e s p o n d i n g level of 1.96 +
0.33 r a M . 1-1 following aerobic exercise. A l t h o u g h
no significant increases in G H were seen during
aerobic exercise or in the following r e c o v e r y period
(Fig. 2), G H was significantly (P < 0.01) elevated at
256 W. P. Vanhelder et al.: Plasma growth hormone during anaerobic and aerobic exercise
.......... 9 i n l e r r n i t t e n t e x e r c i s e
o--o continuous exercise
duration nor the energy expenditure of these two
: [ O u r a t i o n of e x e r c i s e exercises was equal. Conversely, no clear difference
I0 n=5
I in GH response was found by Karagiorgos et al.
Z "%,.9

E 2" ".~ (1979) between continuous and intermittent cycling

~/,/" "%~ in which the total work and duration of the exercise
'o i were equal.. The highest blood lactate achieved
i ".. ~
_J during the intermittent cycling in the study, however,
averaged only 4.5 + 0.7 mM 9 1-1 as compared to 2.1
l // ........ • 0.3 m M . 1-1 in their continuous exercise. Since
~t
I blood lactates during anaerobic exercise can exceed
-10 -30 4 710 16 20 30 60 90
Time [min] 30.0 raM. 1-1 (Hermansen 1969), the intermittent
Fig. l. Plasma lactic acid levels before, during, and after cycling in the latter study (Karagiorgos et al. 1979)
continuous and intermittent cycling in five normal males (mean _+ was not representative of typical anaerobic exercise.
s{andard deviation) In our study, lactate levels during anaerobic exercise
increased 4-fold over aerobic levels (9.2 mM 9 1-1 vs
1.9 raM. 1-s, respectively).
There is a possibility that the inertia involved in
repeated starting of cycle in Exercise II (anaerobic)
141
12
i
T
[
i
!
~ ......... 9 intermlt~erll e x e r c i s e
~ - - t continuous exercise
of our experiment played some role in the GH
response. Nonetheless, the cycle was started twenty
I ~ dLiralion of e x e r c i s e
lO C
L I n ~5
times during the intermittent exercise in the study of
Karagiorgos et al. (1.979) and yet no significant
difference in GH levels between an intermittent and
:E ,: *''....
(D continuous cycling was reported. Thus, it seems
, --... [ unlikely that the inertia was a major factor in this
experimental model.
Although our data show that an intermittent
. . . . .
anaerobic cycling exercise leads to higher plasma GH
-10 -3 0 4 7 10 16 20 130 90
levels than the aerobic continuous exercise, the major
Time [min]
determinant of the GH response is not clear.
Fig. 2. Plasma growth hormone levels before, dining, and after Whereas the correlation between lactic acid levels
continuous and intermittent cycling in five normal males (mean +_
and GH found in both types of exercise has also been
standard deviation)
reported previously (Sutton et al. 1969), others have
found no such correlation (Karagiorgos et al. 1979).
Furthermore, artificial manipulation of lactate levels
the end of the anaerobic exercise and in the recovery by infusion of lactic acid (Sutton et al. 1976) did not
period. Significant corrleations were found during influence GH secretion, presumably suggesting that
exercise (0-20 min) between lactate and GH levels in the level of this anaerobic metabolite in the blood is
both the anaerobic (r = 0.87, P < 0 . 0 5 ) and the unlikely to be the regulator of GH secretion.
aerobic exercises (r = 0.93, P < 0.05). GH levels during exercise have also been shown
to be linearly related to. oxygen deficit (calculated as
the difference between Vo2 at steady state of exercise
Discussion and the actual !)'oz during the first eight minutes of
exercise representing the transient phase) (Lassare et
This study has shown that anaerobic exercise resulted al. 1974). Sutton et al. (1977) reported thata decrease
in significantly higher levels of GH than a similar in !/o2 max induced by hypoxia was associated with
aerobic exercise of equal duration and work output. enhanced GH responses to exercise and that changes
These findings are at variance with Kindermann et at. in 17o2max were also associated with reverse changes
(1982) and Kuoppasalmi et al. (1976). These previous in lactate.
studies, however, did not standardize the duration Thus, it may be that an oxygen deficit may be
and work output of the exercises compared. responsible independently for the increase in lactate
Although Kindermann et al. (1982) reported and GH concentrations in the blood. On the other
significantly (P < 0.002) higher levels of GH in their hand, one cannot exclude the possibility that the
subjects after aerobic treadmill running than after regulator may indeed be lactic acid which may be
anaerobic running, their aerobic exercise lasted sensed in the working muscle and not necessarily
50 rain vs 1.5 min for their anaerobic run. Neither the related to bloc,d lactate tevels.
W. P. Vanhelder et al.: Plasma growth hormone during anaerobic and aerobic exercise
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Accepted October 31, 1983