Morphology and Anabolic Response of Skeletal Muscles Subjected to Eccentrically or Concentrically Biased Exercise

Long-term eccentric exercise is known to promote muscle growth better than concentric exercise, but its acute effect on muscle is not well understood because of misinterpreted modeling and in situ and in vitro stretch protocols. Knowing if the initial bout of eccentric exercise promotes muscle growth and limits damage is critical to understanding the effect of this mode of exercise.

To directly evaluate the immediate effects of eccentric and concentric exercises on untrained muscle when fiber strains were physiological and exercise doses were comparable.

Controlled laboratory study.

Laboratory.

A total of 40 skeletally mature male Long-Evans rats (age = 16 weeks, mass = 452.1 ± 35.2 g) were randomly assigned to an eccentric exercise (downhill walking, n = 16), concentric exercise (uphill walking, n = 16), or control (no exercise, n = 8) group.

Rats were exposed to a single 15-minute bout of eccentric or concentric exercise on a motorized treadmill and then were euthanized at 6 or 24 hours postexercise. We harvested the vastus lateralis muscle bilaterally.

The percentage increase or decrease in protein abundance in exercised animals relative to that in unexercised control animals was evaluated as elevated phosphorylated p70^S6k relative to total p70^S6k. Fiber damage was quantified using immunoglobulin G permeability staining. One-way analysis of variance and post hoc Tukey tests were performed.

Rats exposed to eccentric exercise and euthanized at 24 hours had higher percentage response protein synthesis rates than rats exposed to eccentric exercise and euthanized at 6 hours (P = .02) or to concentric exercise and euthanized at 6 (P = .03) or 24 (P = .03) hours. We assessed 9446 fibers for damage and found only 1 fiber was infiltrated (in the concentric exercise group euthanized at 6 hours). Furthermore, no between-groups differences in immunoglobulin G fluorescent intensity were detected (P = .94).

Incorporating eccentric exercise is a simple, universally available therapeutic intervention for promoting muscle recovery. A single 15-minute dose of eccentric exercise to a novice muscle can better exert an anabolic effect than a comparable dose of concentric exercise, with very limited evidence of fiber damage.