Increasing mitochondrial density in the muscle cell can improve the energy efficiency of the muscle cell, increase fat oxidation, and improve endurance performance (14, 17). Training in a glycogen-depleted state has been shown to enhance the expression of genes that promote the creation of mitochondria (6, 9, 27, 28). One of the major components of carb cycling is that you’ll perform some workouts in a glycogen-depleted state. So now that we have the general idea on what carb cycling is, what benefits have been found in the research? Benefits of Carb Cycling Muscle glycogen content can also modulate transcription factors that may affect the protein synthesis process (17) – this may contain some unique applications in resistance training. All of these findings are due to the fact that muscle glycogen storage can act both as a fuel for training and as a signaling pathway to promote adaptations to training (1). This caused some researchers to even ponder if carb cycling was the key to optimal training adaptations in endurance athletes (6). Carb cycling first became popular in endurance training as it was shown to potentially enhance adaptations to endurance exercise (11, 17). There are a few different ways to do this which we’ll cover throughout the article. Enter, carb cycling.Ĭarb cycling is simply a strategy for rotating high, low, and moderate carbohydrate days. Altering the glycogen content of the muscle before, during, or after training, then, may induce different training adaptations.

Intense endurance training will rely on carbohydrates for fuel to a greater degree than resistance training, but lifting weights can definitely still cause a decent amount of glycogen depletion (15, 23). First thing’s first, carbohydrates are the primary energy source we use during training as they are stored as glycogen in both muscle and the liver and are readily used for energy.

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