Resistance-training protocol Participants completed a periodized 28-day resistance-training program split

into two upper-extremity and two lower-extremity exercise sessions each wk for 28 days. This constituted a total of 16 exercise sessions, with eight upper-body and eight lower-body exercise sessions. Prior to each exercise session, participants performed a standardized series of stretching exercises. The participants then performed an upper-extremity resistance-training program consisting of nine exercises (bench press, lat pull, shoulder press, seated rows, shoulder shrugs, chest flies, biceps curl, triceps press down, and abdominal curls) twice per week and a program consisting of seven lower-extremity exercises (leg press, back extension, step ups, leg curls, leg extension, heel raises, and abdominal crunches). Participants performed three sets of 10 repetitions at 70 – 80% 1-RM. Rest selleck inhibitor periods were two min between exercises and between sets. The find more resistance exercise sessions were not supervised; however, it was required that each participant completed detailed daily resistance-training logs. Whole blood and serum clinical chemistry analyses Whole blood was collected

and immediately analyzed for standard cell blood counts with percentage differentials (hemoglobin, hematocrit, RBC, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RDW, WBC counts, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils and leukocyte differentials) using a Cell-Dyne 3500 (Abbott Diagnostics, Dallas, TX) automated hematology analyzer. The instrument’s flow system was primed and the background counts checked daily to ensure appropriate

RBC and Amobarbital WBC linearity. The coefficients of variation for the Cell-Dyne 3500 are 0.8747%, 0.8830%, 0.0296%, 0.7903%, and 0.8534% for neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, and basophils, respectively. Using a Dade Dimension RXL Analyzer (Dade Behring, Newark, DE), serum samples were assayed for general clinical chemistry markers (total cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins, low-density lipoproteins, triglycerides, albumin, glucose, GGT, LDH, uric acid, BUN, creatinine, BUN/creatinine ratio, calcium, creatine kinase, total protein, total bilirubin, ALP, ALT, and AST). This clinical chemistry analyzer was calibrated daily using liquid assay multiqual (BIO-RAD, Hercules, CA). For all assays mentioned above, the coefficients of variation are less than 5%. Serum IGF-1 and HGF analyses Serum samples were analyzed in duplicate for free/bioactive IGF-1 (learn more Diagnostic Systems Laboratories, Webster, TX) and HGF (Biosource, Camarillo, CA) using an ELISA. For IGF-1, this assay has a sensitivity of 0.06 ng/ml, and does not cross-react with albumins or GH binding proteins. For HGF, the sensitivity is 10 pg/ml.