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Relationships between resting blood flow and the indices of muscle damage after eccentric contractions

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European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the study is to examine the relationships between increments in resting blood flow and isometric maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force reduction, muscle soreness, and swelling after eccentric contractions (ECs).

Methods

Twenty-one young healthy men (age 20.8 ± 1.6 years; height 172.0 ± 5.3 cm; weight 64.9 ± 7.7 kg) were recruited for this study. All participants performed right arm ECs in five sets of 20 repetitions with 3 min of rest between the sets. The dumbbell weight corresponded to 60% MVC force of isometric contraction of elbow flexors with 90° elbow joint angle. Resting forearm blood flow (FBF), the MVC force, the muscle thickness (MT), and muscle soreness of elbow flexors, heart rate (HR), and blood pressure (BP) of brachial artery were measured before, 24 and 48 h after ECs.

Results

Average and peak resting FBF after ECs significantly changed from the average values before ECs (21% and 39% increase, respectively, P < 0.01). However, resting HR and BP were not significantly different after ECs. Average increase in resting FBF showed a significant relationship with average isometric MVC force reduction (r =  − 0.45, P < 0.05), peak isometric MVC force reduction (r =  − 0.48, P < 0.05), average muscle soreness (r = 0.49, P < 0.05), and peak muscle soreness (r = 0.49, P < 0.05). Moreover, stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that average increased resting FBF was explained by isometric MVC force reduction and muscle soreness (adjusted R2 = 0.33).

Conclusions

These results suggested that increments in resting blood flow reflect muscle damage, and increased resting blood flow may be a result of acute inflammatory response induced by muscle damage.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

BP:

Blood pressure

ECs:

Eccentric contractions

EIMD:

Exercise-induced muscle damage

FBF:

Forearm blood flow

DOMS:

Delayed-onset muscle soreness

HR:

Heart rate

IMP:

Intramuscular pressure

MT:

Muscle thickness

MVC:

Maximal voluntary contraction

VAS:

Visual analog scale

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. 18J12681). We are grateful to Professor Keisho Katayama, PhD of Nagoya University for excellent advice. We thank Hugh McGonigle, from Edanz Group (www.edanzediting.com/ac), for editing a draft of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Tsurumai 65, Showa, Nagoya, Aichi, 466-8560, Japan

    Hisashi Maeda & Koji Ishida

  2. Applied Physiology Laboratory, Toyota Technological Institute, Hisakata 2-12-1, Tenpaku, Nagoya, Aichi, 468-0034, Japan

    Mitsuru Saito

  3. Research Center of Health, Physical Fitness and Sports, Nagoya University, Furo, Chikusa, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-0814, Japan

    Koji Ishida & Hiroshi Akima

  4. Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Nagoya University, Furo, Chikusa, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-0814, Japan

    Hiroshi Akima

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  1. Hisashi Maeda
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Contributions

All authors participated in conducting experiments. HM and MS carried out measurements. HM, MS, KI, and HA analyzed data and drafted the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hisashi Maeda.

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The author(s) declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the ethics committees of the Research Center of Health, Physical Fitness, and Sports at Nagoya University (30-06), and proceeded in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Communicated by Massimo Pagani.

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Maeda, H., Saito, M., Ishida, K. et al. Relationships between resting blood flow and the indices of muscle damage after eccentric contractions. Eur J Appl Physiol 120, 2183–2192 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-020-04442-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-020-04442-1

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