Discussion
SIT, post-SIT, muscle damage
LARSEN
The present study examined the effect of a single session (acute) and multiple sessions performed over two weeks (chronic) swimming SIT on responses of inflammatory cytokines and muscle damage markers and if increasing protein intake through protein supplementation before sleep may affect these responses. The primary finding of this experiment was that swimming SIT reduced the concentrations of exercise-induced markers of muscle damage and shifted the post-SIT (48 h) response of cytokines to an anti-inflammatory status. This effect was independent of protein supplementation, as whey protein consumed before sleep failed to reduce blood markers of muscle damage and failed to induce systemic anti-inflammatory status. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to indicate a swimming SIT with short intervals performed over two weeks shifts the circulatory cytokines to an anti-inflammatory status.Regarding muscle damage markers, our findings are contrary to previous studies indicating the positive impact of protein intake immediately around training sessions on ameliorating sarcolemma disruption markers [Consistent with previous research, our results indicated no positive effects of pre-sleep protein supplementation on inflammatory biomarkers [Another important finding of this experiment was the decrease in the late IL-6/IL-10 ratio (48 hours after exercise) following a 2-week swimming SIT program, along with the absence of any changes in CK concentration. Our findings support Ferreira and colleagues [One limitation of this study was the inability to monitor sleep closely, and another was the inclusion of only male athletes. This makes it difficult to generalize our results to female runners. Larsen and colleagues [