The Relationship Between muscle Damage and Activity Profiles During Team Handball Matches

Koji Akashi,Mamoru Tanaka

doi:10.2174/1875399x02013010001

Abstract

Background: Anaerobic activities often require explosive muscle power; it is therefore possible that players’ skeletal muscles sustain damage during the game, which leads to a performance decrease as the game progresses. Objective: This study investigated the relationship between muscle damage and activity profiles during team handball matches. Methods: This study conducted two handball games to examine the relationship between muscle damage and impacts against the body during the games. We studied one handball match between members of the same university team (Game I: 12 male court players) and a practice match between a Japanese handball league team and the university student team (Game II: nine male court players and six controls). Results: Plasma myoglobin concentration and plasma creatine kinase activity, both of which are biomarkers for muscle damage, increased to above their normal ranges after both games. The magnitudes of the changes in both plasma myoglobin (p<.05) and plasma creatine kinase activity (p<0.05) from before to after the game were significantly different between the players and controls in Game II. There were significant correlations between the number of shots taken in Game II and biomarkers for muscle damage; the changes in plasma myoglobin concentrations (p<0.01) and plasma creatine kinase (p< 0.01) activity levels. Conclusion: These results suggest that team handball matches involve high-intensity exercise that is sufficient to cause muscle damage. Additionally, our findings suggest that the severity of muscle damage is related to the specific actions associated with taking shots, such as jumping and colliding with a defender.

Highlights

IntroductionPlaying handball requires both anaerobic activities (e.g., sprinting, shooting, jumping, or high intensity body contact) and aerobic activities (e.g., standing, walking, or jogging), which occur at random rates [1 - 3]
Playing handball requires both anaerobic activities and aerobic activities, which occur at random rates [1 - 3]
These results suggest that team handball matches involve high-intensity exercise that is sufficient to cause muscle damage

Summary

Introduction

Playing handball requires both anaerobic activities (e.g., sprinting, shooting, jumping, or high intensity body contact) and aerobic activities (e.g., standing, walking, or jogging), which occur at random rates [1 - 3]. After real boxing matches and shadow boxing at the same physical intensity, Mb and CK levels have been reported to reflect the degree of skeletal muscle damage after real matches only; this indicates that muscle damage was caused by the direct impacts to the body that occurred during the real matches [9]. Overall, these studies have indicated that direct impacts on the body and explosive muscle power during sports result in skeletal muscle damage. Anaerobic activities often require explosive muscle power; it is possible that players’ skeletal muscles sustain damage during the game, which leads to a performance decrease as the game progresses

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion