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Women
suffer most muscle damage after strenuous exercise
Journal
of Sports Science and Medicine 2000,18,229-236
The theory that women
incur less muscle damage than men after strenuous
exercise has been exploded by a major new study
which suggests the opposite: far from being
protected against exercise-induced damage, women
seem to be more severely affected, with a relatively
reduced range of motion which persists for at least
a week afterwards.
Most previous studies
in this area have relied on indirect - and
unreliable - markers of tissue damage, particularly
the muscle protein creatine kinase, and have used
small sample sizes and inappropriate exercise tests.
The current study is the first to evaluate changes
in muscle function in women and men in response to
an exercise damage protocol.
A large sample of 83
women and 82 men performed a bout of eccentric
exercise of the elbow flexors consisting of 70
maximal repetitions. Isometric strength, resting
elbow angle and muscle soreness were measured before
exercise, immediately afterwards and then daily for
seven days.
The results were as
follows:
- Muscle soreness
peaked at 32-48 hours post exercise for both
groups, with no significant difference between
men and women;
- Both groups
experienced a significant and similar loss of
strength after exercise, with a similar rate of
recovery;
- Men and women
showed a similar loss in range of motion up to
48 hours post exercise, but the women revealed a
more pronounced loss at 72 hours, which was
still apparent at the end of the week.
'The cause of this
difference is unclear,' say the researchers.
'Moreover, the mechanism driving the well-documented
decrease in range of motion is not known.' However
the finding is compatible with the theory that loss
in range of motion is caused by changes in
connective tissue, since women are more prone than
men to connective tissue diseases. 'if connective
tissue is more susceptible to injury in women, this
may have contributed to the more pronounced muscle
shortening and reduction in the elbow angle.
However, it should be noted that the difference in
loss of range of motion between men and women was
small.'
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