Effect of Resistance Training along with Electrical Muscle Stimulation on Serum Levelsof Some of the Molecular Markers of Muscle Hypertrophy in Male Athletesafter Anterior Cruciate Ligament Surgery

Introduction: to the best of our knowledge, no study has been evaluated the effect of a combinationof resistance training and electrical muscle stimulation (ems) on muscle hypertrophy factors in injuredathletes. the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ems on serum levels of some molecularmarkers of muscle hypertrophy in male athletes after anterior cruciate ligament surgery (acl).materials and methods: twenty male athletes after acl surgery were selected and randomly dividedinto two groups: ems and control (10 subjects in each group) of. subjects in both groups performedresistance training (at intensity of 30-70 percentage of 10-repetition maximum, 2-4 sets). whereas,subjects in ems group performed resistance training with ems at frequency of 35-70 hz. bloodsamples were collected before and 48 hours after the last training session to measure serum levels ofsirtoin-1 (sirt1), visfatin and nitric oxide (no).results: the finding showed that 12 weeks of ems significantly increased serum levels of sirt1 (p< 0.001), visfatin (p = 0.02) and no (p = 0.01) in post-test compared to the pre-test. the results alsorevealed that the ems training significantly increased sirt1 (p < 0.001) and no (p = 0.021) levels incomparison with the control group. however, there was no significant difference between two groupsin visfatin levels (p > 0.05).conclusion: the results suggest that ems training could possibly be a good alternative to thetraditional resistance training to stimulate factors related to muscle protein synthesis.