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Damage protective effects conferred by low-intensity eccentric contractions on arm, leg and trunk muscles

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European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Low-intensity eccentric contractions with a load corresponding to 10% of maximal voluntary isometric contraction strength (10% EC) attenuate muscle damage in a subsequent bout of higher-intensity eccentric contractions performed within 2 weeks for the elbow flexors, knee flexors and knee extensors. However, it is not known whether this strategy could be applied to other muscles. This study investigated whether 10% EC would confer damage protective effect on high-intensity eccentric contractions (80% EC) for nine different muscle groups.

Methods

Untrained young men were placed to an experimental or a control group (n = 12/group). Experimental group performed 50 eccentric contractions with a load corresponding to 10% EC at 2 days prior to 50 eccentric contractions with 80% EC for the elbow flexors and extensors, pectoralis, knee flexors and extensors, plantar flexors, latissimus, abdominis and erector spinae. Control group performed 80% EC without 10% EC. Changes in maximal voluntary isometric contraction strength (MVC) and muscle soreness, plasma creatine kinase (CK) activity and myoglobin concentration after 80% EC were compared between groups by a mixed-factor ANOVA.

Results

MVC recovered faster (e.g., 6–31% greater MVC at 5 days post-exercise), and peak muscle soreness was 36–54% lower for Experimental than Control group for the nine muscles (P < 0.05). Increases in plasma CK activity and myoglobin concentration were smaller for Experimental (e.g., peak CK: 2763 ± 3459 IU/L) than Control group (120,360 ± 50,158 IU/L).

Conclusions

These results showed that 10% EC was effective for attenuating the magnitude of muscle damage after 80% EC for all muscles, although the magnitude of the protective effect differed among the muscles.

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Data availability

The data of the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

CK:

Creatine kinase

CV:

Coefficient of variation

DOMS:

Delayed-onset muscle soreness

EC:

Eccentric contractions

ECM:

Extracellular matrix

MVC:

Maximal voluntary isometric contraction

R:

Intraclass correlation coefficient

SD:

Standard deviation

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mr. Yu-Chieh Chou for his assistance in the data collection.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 105-2628-H-415-036-MY3) and the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Education, National Taiwan Normal University, P.O. Box 97-71, Wenshan Wansheng, Taipei, 11699, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Min-Jyue Huang, Ho-Seng Wang & Trevor C. Chen

  2. Centre for Exercise and Sports Science Research, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Australia

    Kazunori Nosaka

  3. Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Kuo-Wei Tseng

  4. Department of Physical Education, Health and Recreation, National Chiayi University, Chiayi, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Hsin-Lian Chen

  5. Department of Athletic Performance, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Tai-Ying Chou

Authors
  1. Min-Jyue Huang
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  2. Kazunori Nosaka
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  3. Ho-Seng Wang
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  4. Kuo-Wei Tseng
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  5. Hsin-Lian Chen
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  6. Tai-Ying Chou
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  7. Trevor C. Chen
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Contributions

All authors (MJH, KN, HSW, KWT, TYC, HLC, and TCC) contributed to the data analysis and interpretation of the data, drafting, and revising the manuscript, and approved the final version of the manuscript. The original study design was made by TCC and KN, and discussed with the other authors, and MJH, TCC and HLC performed data collection.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Trevor C. Chen.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in the present study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration.

Informed consent

A written informed consent was obtained from each participant participated in the study.

Additional information

Communicated by William J. Kraemer.

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Huang, MJ., Nosaka, K., Wang, HS. et al. Damage protective effects conferred by low-intensity eccentric contractions on arm, leg and trunk muscles. Eur J Appl Physiol 119, 1055–1064 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04095-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04095-9

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