Relationship between Skin Temperature, Electrical Manifestations of Muscle Fatigue, and Exercise-Induced Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness for Dynamic Contractions: A Preliminary Study.

Jose I Priego-Quesada,Carlos De La Fuente,Pedro Perez-Soriano,David Hervás-Marín,Marcos R Kunzler,Felipe P Carpes

doi:10.3390/ijerph17186817

Abstract

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) indicates the presence of muscle damage and impairs force production and control. Monitorization of DOMS is useful to improving recovery intervention plans. The magnitude of DOMS may relate to muscle fatigue, which can be monitored by surface electromyography (EMG). Additionally, growing interest has been expressed in determining whether the skin temperature over a muscle group during exercise to fatigue could be a non-invasive marker for DOMS. Here we determine whether skin temperature and manifestations of muscle fatigue during exercise are correlated and can predict DOMS after concentric–eccentric bicep curl exercises. We tested 10 young adults who performed concentric–eccentric bicep curl exercises to induce muscle damage in the biceps brachialis to investigate the relationship between skin temperature and fatigue during exercise and DOMS after exercise. Muscle activation and skin temperature were recorded during exercise. DOMS was evaluated 24 h after exercise. Data analysis was performed using Bayesian regression models with regularizing priors. We found significant muscle fatigue and an increase in skin temperature during exercise. DOMS was observed 24 h after exercise. The regression models showed no correlation of changes in skin temperature and muscle fatigue during exercise with DOMS 24 h after exercise. In conclusion, our preliminary results do not support a relationship between skin temperature measured during exercise and either muscle fatigue during exercise or the ability to predict DOMS 24 h after exercise.

Highlights

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can be experienced from 24 h to 7 days after intense exercises involving eccentric muscle actions, as well as in response to sudden increases in workload and muscle fatigue [1]
In the adjusted Bayesian ordinal regression model for DOMS, higher values of bicep skinfold were associated with lower DOMS values (OR = 0.24, 95% credibility intervals (95% CIs) [0.06, 0.97], evidence ratio = 56.1), and a higher number of repetitions was associated with a higher DOMS score (OR = 0.06, 95% CI [1, 1.15], evidence ratio = 19.0)
In the same way, considering bivariate Pearson correlations, DOMS was not found to correlate with variation in the median frequency (MDF) (r = 0.02, p = 0.95), peak frequency (r = −0.24, p = 0.51), or skin temperature of the dominant limb (r = 0.09, p = 0.82)

Summary

Introduction

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can be experienced from 24 h to 7 days after intense exercises involving eccentric muscle actions, as well as in response to sudden increases in workload and muscle fatigue [1]. DOMS impairs functionality and neuromuscular performance [5]. For this reason, predicting it based on the characteristics of the exercise session could help to improve recovery interventions such as massage, stretching, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, cryotherapy, and compression, among others [6]. Fatigue plays a main role in muscle damage. Eccentric actions in general result in a lower magnitude of muscle activation, while fatigue due to submaximal exercise will increase muscle activation and decrease the firing rate [12]. A possible interaction between DOMS and neuromuscular activation could exist because the main conditions leading to DOMS, which include eccentric actions and muscle fatigue, are detectable through neuromuscular activity patterns

Results

Discussion

Conclusion