Muscle glycogen is not limiting during resistance exercise?

Is muscle glycogen a limiting factor during resistance exercise?

Carbohydrates and fat are the main fuel sources during for prolonged exercise. As exercise intensity increases, the proportion of carbohydrate use increases.  

Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in the liver and muscle. However, only a relatively small amount of carbohydrates can be stored. Therefore, glycogen stores are often a limiting factor during prolonged intensive endurance exercise.

However, are glycogen stores also a limiting factor for strength training?

The present study investigated muscle glycogen stores before and after resistance exercise. Subjects performed 8 sets of 10 reps at ~75% 1RM (repetition max) on the leg press and the same protocol on the leg extension.

This training session reduced muscle glycogen by only ~33%.

16 sets of for a muscle group is a relatively high amount. Therefore, muscle glycogen is not likely to become a limiting factor during a high-volume resistance exercise training session. In addition, such high set volume usually requires a low training frequency to allow muscle damage to recover. Therefore, there will also be sufficient time to restore muscle glycogen stores for the next workout.

Study:
Koopman et al. Intramyocellular lipid and glycogen content are reduced following resistance exercise in untrained healthy males. Eur J Appl Physiol, 2006

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