Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Damage To Skeletal Muscle From Eccentric Exercise.7
Damage To Skeletal Muscle From Eccentric Exercise.7
PROSKE, U., and T.J. ALLEN. Damage to Skeletal Muscle from Eccentric Exercise. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev., Vol. 33, No. 2,
pp. 98 –104, 2005. Evidence is provided for a mechanical event as the first step in the process leading to muscle damage after a series
of eccentric contractions. Aspects discussed include the decline in active tension, increase in passive tension, shift in length–tension
relation, soreness, swelling, and disturbed proprioception. Key Words: eccentric exercise, damage, pain, adaptation, sarcomere
98
Force remains depressed for up to a week after the eccentric
contractions, whereas recovery is complete within 1–2 h after
concentric contractions (Fig. 2). So, deficits in force mea-
sured at 2 h or later after the eccentric contractions are likely
to be only caused by the damage.
Second, eccentric contractions lead to a shift of the
length–tension relation of the muscle in the direction of
longer muscle lengths (see below). If this is not taken into
account, and the measurement is made at the original length,
it will overestimate the fall in force. It has led to reports of
much greater falls in force from eccentric exercise than is
really the case. For example, 50 eccentric contractions per-
formed across the optimum length of the medial gastrocne-
mius muscle of the anesthetized cat led tension to fall by 55%
of the control value. This was a measurement made at the
Figure 1. Steps in the damage process from eccentric exercise. Postu- original optimum length, determined from the muscle’s
lated series of events in muscle fibers damaged by a period of eccentric length–tension relation. When the length–tension relation
exercise. For details, see text. was remeasured after the eccentric contraction, optimum
length had shifted in the direction of longer muscle lengths
by 3.2 mm, representing 16% of the muscle’s working range.
length–tension relation of the muscle, a characteristic feature Tension measured at the new optimum length was now 39%
associated with damage from eccentric contractions (5). of control values. That is, not taking the length change into
An event supplementary to sarcomere disruption is the account overestimated the size of the force drop by 41%.
opening of stretch-activated cation channels as a result of Another effect attributed to eccentric contractions is that
membrane stresses produced by the mechanical changes (Fig. force at low stimulation rates is preferentially decreased com-
1). This leads to inward movement of Na⫹ and Ca2⫹ into the pared with force at high stimulation rates. This is sometimes
sarcoplasm (15).
To summarize, the sequence of events would begin with
disruption of sarcomeres. Structural distortions triggered by
the disruptions lead to membrane damage and interference
with E-C coupling. At the same time, the accompanying
stresses applied to membranous structures lead to opening of
cation channels. All of this produces an increase in sarco-
plasmic Ca2⫹ levels and the Ca2⫹ triggers proteolysis asso-
ciated with fiber breakdown and repair.
There have been repeated reports that the damage from
eccentric exercise can be reduced by muscle fatigue. Until
now, there has been no evidence in support of such views.
Experiments in our laboratory (4) have shown that eccentric
contractions applied to a muscle whose force output had been
reduced by 32% by a previous series of fatiguing concentric
contractions produced as much evidence of damage as from
the same contractions given to unfatigued muscle. The point
emphasizes that fatigue and damage are two quite separate
processes, and that neither force levels nor fatigue determines
the amount of damage from eccentric contractions (4). It is
a common misconception that high stresses during an active
stretch are responsible for eccentric damage.
PROPRIOCEPTION