Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to determine whether mild to moderate muscle damage accumulates on the knee extensors after two bouts of maximal eccentric contractions performed over two consecutive days.
Methods
Thirty participants performed an initial bout of maximal eccentric contractions of knee extensors during the first day of the protocol (ECC1). Then, they were separated in two groups. The Experimental (EXP) group repeated the eccentric bout 24 h later (ECC2) while the Control (CON) group did not. Indirect markers of muscle damage (i.e., strength loss, muscle soreness, and shear modulus) were measured to quantify the amount of muscle damage and its time course.
Results
Two days after the initial eccentric session, participants from EXP had a higher strength deficit (− 14.5 ± 10.6%) than CON (− 6.6 ± 8.7%) (P = 0.017, d = 0.9). Although both groups exhibited an increase in knee extensors shear modulus after ECC1, we found a significant increase in muscle shear modulus (+ 13.3 ± 22.7%; P < 0.01; d = 0.5) after ECC2 for the EXP group, despite the presence of mild to moderate muscle damage (i.e., strength deficit about 16%).
Conclusion
Although the markers of muscle damage used in the current study were indirect, they suggest that the repetition of two bouts of maximal eccentric contractions with 24 h apart induces additional muscle damage in the knee extensors in presence of mild to moderate muscle damage.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- CON:
-
Control group
- D1, D2, D3, D4, D7 :
-
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 7
- ECC1, ECC2 :
-
Eccentric training 1, Eccentric training number 2
- EXP:
-
Experimental group
- MVC:
-
Maximal voluntary contraction
- RF:
-
Rectus femoris
- VM:
-
Vastus medialis
- VL:
-
Vastus lateralis
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The authors thank all the participants for their participation.
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Lilian Lacourpaille conceived and designed research. Titouan Morin and Inès Boulaouche conducted the experiments and collected the data. Lilian Lacourpaille and Titouan Morin analyzed the data. Antoine Nordez, Marc Jubeau, Robin Souron, Lilian Lacourpaille and Titouan Morin drafted the manuscript. All authors provided critical appraisal to the manuscript and approved the final version.
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Morin, T., Souron, R., Boulaouche, I. et al. Mild to moderate damage in knee extensor muscles accumulates after two bouts of maximal eccentric contractions. Eur J Appl Physiol 123, 2723–2732 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-023-05257-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-023-05257-6