The consequences of eccentric contractions and their relationship to delayed onset muscle pain

Abstract

Exercise can cause muscle pain for a number of reasons. Usually the pain is experienced during the exercise and recovers rapidly afterwards. There is one type of muscle pain that has a very different and characteristic time course. In this situation the exercise itself, and the immediate post-exercise period are painfree. The pain is not felt for about eight hours and is maximal 1 or 2 days later. Delayed onset muscle pain occurs after unaccustomed, high force contractions and is particularly associated with eccentric contractions. The concensus of opinion is that the pain is caused by some form of damage, but the mechanism for the pain is not known. This review summarises the literature on the consequences of eccentric contractions and relates them to delayed onset muscle pain. There is clear evidence of damage to the muscle fibres themselves, their membranes and, at a later stage, mononuclear cell infiltration, but all these have very different time courses and none are the same as the pain. Intramuscular pressures are raised in some, but not all, painful compartments and even when raised follow a different time course to the pain. Anti-inflammatory agents do not affect the pain, but due to the incomplete understanding of the action of these drugs, the role of inflammation in delayed onset muscle pain is uncertain. Despite the considerable evidence of damage after eccentric contractions, the cause of delayed onset muscle pain is still unknown.

The role of sternocleidomastoid muscle in simulated low velocity rear-end impacts

“…Brault et al [2] reported a lengthening by 3-6% of the SCM upon simulated impacts. This eccentric muscle contraction mechanism is consistent with the delayed onset of muscle symptoms observed in whiplash injuries [14,15]. This mechanism also supports the generalized muscular hyperalgesia present in subjects who have experienced whiplash trauma; this generalized central hyperexcitability might be caused through tissue injury [5].…”

Muscle damage and muscle remodeling: no pain, no gain?

“…Because of these high forces, muscle damage is commonly associated with eccentric contractions. Although damage can be a common manifestation of eccentric exercise, if the magnitude of force is increased gradually and progressively, muscles adapt to any pattern of use, including high eccentric forces, with no detectable muscle injury response (LaStayo et al, 1999;Newham, 1988). The gradual ramp-up protocol used in this study was successful in achieving high training forces while avoiding detectable damage in the PT group.…”

Microvascular Perfusion Increases After Eccentric Exercise of the Gastrocnemius

“…Excessive eccentric contractions in unaccustomed muscle leads to delayed onset muscle soreness, [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] which is a form of reversible muscle damage. 32 This muscle damage is greater than concentriceccentric or concentric contractions 33 and seems to occur at the myotendinous junction, a common place for athletic injury.…”