| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Exercise consisting of predominantly eccentric (lengthening) muscle actions induces delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), especially if the exercise is unfamiliar. It is no doubt that DOMS is one of the symptoms of eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage, however, DOMS does not necessarily indicate muscle damage. This study has clarified that the level of DOMS does not reflect the extent of muscle damage, and the time course of DOMS does not correspond to the time course of changes in other indicators of muscle damage. In this context, it is necessary to separate DOMS from other symptoms of eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. This is especially important for investigating prophylactic or therapeutic modalities. It may be that some interventions are effective only for alleviating DOMS, but others enhance recovery of muscle function without affecting DOMS. Thus, when a treatment is found to alleviate DOMS without any effects on recovery of muscle function, the treatment is still e
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ffective if DOMS is the main concern. Although many therapeutic modalities have been tested their effects on DOMS, it appears that no single treatment has been shown to be very effective for attenuating DOMS, although some modalities such as massage and exercise have been shown to have some analgesic effects. It is clearly shown in this study together with previous studies that muscles performed eccentric exercise become less susceptible to DOMS for several weeks. It is anecdotally reported that muscle soreness is much more delayed with ageing. However, the present study found that this is not necessarily true. An interesting statement was made by an old subject in the present study, who showed the largest changes in muscle strength, upper arm circumference, and plasma CK activity, that "the muscles were sore, but the pain was like nothing compared to the pain I experienced following an operation a long time ago." This could explain the lower DOMS score of the old group compared to the young. Based on the results obtained from this study and literature review, a booklet entitled "Story of Muscle Soreness" (in Japanese) has been made to let people know more about the facts of DOMS. Less
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