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Changes in electrical pain threshold of fascia and muscle after initial and secondary bouts of elbow flexor eccentric exercise

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European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigated changes in electrical pain threshold (EPT) after repeated eccentric exercise bouts to test the hypothesis that fascia would become more sensitive than muscle when greater delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is induced.

Methods

Ten young men performed two eccentric exercise bouts (ECC1, ECC2) consisting of ten sets of six maximal isokinetic eccentric contractions of the elbow flexors with the same arm separated by 4 weeks. Maximal voluntary isometric contraction torque, range of motion, muscle soreness assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS) and pressure pain threshold (PPT) were measured before, immediately after and 1–5 days after exercise. EPT was assessed in the biceps brachii fascia (BBF), biceps brachii muscle, and brachialis fascia (BF) 1 day before, immediately after, and 1, 2 and 4 days after exercise.

Results

All measures showed smaller changes (P < 0.05) after ECC2 than ECC1. EPT decreased after both bouts and the largest decreases were evident at 2 days post-exercise (P < 0.05). The decreases in EPT after ECC1 were greater (P < 0.05) for both BBF (Baseline: 1.45 ± 0.23 mA, 2 days post-exercise: 0.13 ± 0.11 mA) and BF (1.64 ± 0.29 mA, 0.26 ± 0.2 mA) than muscle (1.56 ± 0.29 mA, 0.69 ± 0.33 mA). Changes in EPT were correlated with the changes in PPT (r = 0.63–0.87, P ≤ 0.05) but not with VAS (r = −0.01 to 0.50).

Conclusion

These results show that fascia becomes more sensitive than muscle to electrical stimulation after the initial eccentric exercise, suggesting that damage inflammation to fascia than muscle fibres is more associated with DOMS.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

BBF:

Biceps brachii fascia

BF:

Brachialis fascia

CV:

Coefficient of variation

DOMS:

Delayed onset muscle soreness

ECC:

Eccentric exercise

EPT:

Electrical pain threshold

MVC:

Maximal voluntary contraction

PPT:

Pressure pain threshold

ROM:

Range of motion

SEMs:

Standard error of measurements

VAS:

Visual analogue scale

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Exercise and Health Sciences, Center for Exercise and Sports Science Research, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA, 6027, Australia

    Wing Yin Lau, Anthony J. Blazevich, Sam Shi Xuan Wu & Kazunori Nosaka

  2. School of Psychology and Exercise Science, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia

    Michael J. Newton

Authors
  1. Wing Yin Lau
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  2. Anthony J. Blazevich
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  3. Michael J. Newton
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  4. Sam Shi Xuan Wu
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  5. Kazunori Nosaka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kazunori Nosaka.

Additional information

Communicated by Toshio Moritani.

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Lau, W.Y., Blazevich, A.J., Newton, M.J. et al. Changes in electrical pain threshold of fascia and muscle after initial and secondary bouts of elbow flexor eccentric exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol 115, 959–968 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-3077-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-3077-5

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