Abstract
The purpose of the present investigation was to study the possible differences between men and women in muscle damage indices and oxidative stress biomarkers in response to eccentric exercise. Ten males and ten females performed a bout of eccentric exercise using an isokinetic dynamometer. Muscle damage indices (i.e., isometric torque, range of movement, delayed onset muscle soreness, and creatine kinase (CK)) and oxidative stress biomarkers (i.e., protein carbonyls and glutathione) were measured before and 48 h after eccentric exercise. No significant main effect of group or time–group interaction was found for muscle damage indices and oxidative stress biomarkers. However, the main effect of time was significant for all measured parameters. The findings of the present investigation indicate that eccentric exercise caused muscle damage and oxidative stress (i.e., protein and glutathione oxidation) in both males and females with no significant differences between the two groups. It is concluded that there are no differences between males and females regarding muscle damage and oxidative stress after eccentric exercise.
Highlights
Resistance exercise includes lengthening actions, which occur when the muscle unsuccessfully resists elongation, acting as a brake
Lengthening the muscle during contraction may lead to muscle damage [1,2] and is characterized by sustained loss of range of motion [3,4] as well as the development of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) [2]
Despite the many human studies investigating the effects of acute concentric non-muscle-damaging exercise on blood redox status, our group focused on the effects of acute eccentric muscle-damaging exercise on blood redox status [3,8,9,10,11]
Summary
Resistance exercise includes lengthening (eccentric) actions, which occur when the muscle unsuccessfully resists elongation, acting as a brake. Lengthening the muscle during contraction may lead to muscle damage [1,2] and is characterized by sustained loss of range of motion [3,4] as well as the development of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) [2] These changes typically peak at 1–3 days after unaccustomed exercise and subside 4–7 days after exercise [5,6]. In the aforementioned studies, unaccustomed eccentric exercise induced parallel responses in some muscle damage indices (i.e., development and intensity of delayed onset muscle soreness and range of motion) but not in others (i.e., range of motion, torque recovery, and creatine kinase (CK)) between men and women. We used a global marker of systemic protein oxidation (i.e., protein carbonyls in plasma) and the most important non-enzymatic antioxidant molecule (reduced glutathione in erythrocytes)
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