Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the electrically evoked muscle responses are differently affected over time by the knee joint angle after an exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). We hypothesized that low-frequency-evoked responses would be less affected at long than short muscle length, and that mechanisms located within the muscle and tendinous tissues would be involved.
Methods
Fifteen males performed 45 min loaded downhill walking (DW) exercise. Maximal voluntary contraction torque (MVC), optimal angle for torque production, voluntary activation level (VAL), twitch, doublet at 10 and 100 Hz (Db10 and Db100, respectively), rate of torque development (RTD), post-activation potentiation (PAP), muscle shear elastic modulus (µ) and aponeurosis stiffness were assessed before, after, and 4, 24, 48, 72 and 168 h after the exercise at a knee angle of 40°, 90° and 120° (0°: full extension).
Results
MVC, VAL and Db100 were similarly decreased across joint angles after the DW and optimal angle was not affected. Twitch, Db10, Db10/Db100, PAP and RTD were less affected and muscle µ more increased at long than short muscle lengths (p < 0.05), especially during the first 24 h after the DW exercise.
Conclusion
Low-frequency-evoked responses were more preserved at long than short muscle length the first 24 h after the DW exercise, suggesting that joint angle should be taken into account to assess muscular alterations after EIMD. This length-dependence could be associated to the higher sensitivity to Ca2+ and the higher increase in muscle stiffness at long than short muscle length.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- Ca2+ :
-
Calcium
- Db10:
-
Doublet at 10 Hz
- Db100:
-
Doublet at 100 Hz
- Db10/db100:
-
Low-frequency fatigue
- DW:
-
Downhill walking
- E–C coupling:
-
Excitation–contraction coupling
- EIMD:
-
Exercise-induced muscle damage
- KE:
-
Knee extensors
- MVC:
-
Maximal voluntary contraction
- NM:
-
Neuromuscular
- PAP:
-
Post-activation potentiation
- RF:
-
Rectus femoris
- ROI:
-
Region of interest
- RTD:
-
Rate of torque development
- TTL:
-
Transistor-transistor logic
- Twitch:
-
Mechanical response to a single stimulation
- Tw:
-
Non-potentiated twitch
- Twp :
-
Potentiated twitch
- µ:
-
Shear elastic modulus
- VAL:
-
Voluntary activation level
- VL:
-
Vastus lateralis
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Benoît Lepetit, Stéphane Baugé, Phillippe Colin, Caroline Dussault, Stéphanie Bourdon, Marvin Subryan, Roxane Dubois, Alexandra Malgoyre, Pierre-Emmanuel Tardo-Dino, Walid Bouaziz, Olivier Nespoulous and the IRBA Biological Analyses Unit for their technical and medical support.
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EC, JS, SGV and VM designed the study and drafted the manuscript. EC, JS, KC and SGV collected the data. EC, SGV, J-LG and VM participated to the data analysis. KC designed the figures. All the authors contributed to the interpretation of the data and the edition of the manuscript.
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Chalchat, E., Siracusa, J., Bourrilhon, C. et al. Contractile properties are less affected at long than short muscle length after eccentric exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol 123, 1101–1114 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-023-05134-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-023-05134-2