Melanie Poudevigne

Perceived exertion responses to novel elbow flexor eccentric action in women and men

PURPOSE The primary aim was to describe perceived exertion responses to different intensities of eccentric exercise in women and men. METHODS 42 adults (21 men and 21 women, 7 per condition) completed elbow extension exercises with a weight corresponding to 80%, 100%, or 120% of maximal voluntary concentric strength. Total work was equated by manipulating the number of repetitions in the 80% (N = 45), 100% (N = 36), and 120% (N = 30) conditions. RESULTS A two-way ANOVA showed significant main effects for the intensity and sex factors. Perceived exertion ratings were strongly dependent on exercise intensity, and women reported lower RPEs than men. A separate three-way mixed model ANOVA that included a repetition factor showed that perceived exertion ratings increased similarly across the first 30 repetitions in all exercise conditions. Significant partial correlations were found between mean RPE during the eccentric exercise bout, and the mean intensity of delayed-onset muscle pain measured from 12- to 72-h postexercise after controlling for the relative exercise intensity (r12.3 = 0.28) or the maximum concentric strength of the elbow flexors (r12.3 = 0.33). CONCLUSIONS 1) for both women and men, there is a positive association between the intensity of eccentric exercise performed with the elbow flexors and RPE; 2) perceived exertion ratings increase significantly then plateau when repeated eccentric muscle actions are performed at constant, submaximal absolute intensities; 3) women rate eccentric exercise performed at the same intensity (relativized to MVC-C) as being less effortful compared with men; and 4) RPE during eccentric exercise can account for a small but significant amount of variability in delayed-onset muscle pain after statistically controlling for differences in strength or relative intensity.

Lack of both sex differences and influence of resting blood pressure on muscle pain intensity

ObjectiveTo test whether muscle pain intensity caused by different intensities of unaccustomed eccentric exercise was moderately and negatively associated with resting blood pressure, and whether women reported higher pain ratings compared with men in response to such exercise. Design and SubjectsThe repeated measures design involved random assignment of 42 young adults (21 women, 7 per condition) to complete elbow extension exercises with a weight that was 80%, 100%, or 120% of their maximal voluntary concentric strength. Total work was equated by manipulating the number of repetitions performed in the 80% (n = 45), 100% (n = 36), and 120% (n = 30) condition groups. SettingA clinical laboratory in a large university in the southeastern U.S. Outcome MeasuresPain intensity ratings averaged over 3 days and resting blood pressure measurements averaged over 6 days. ResultsFor both sexes there was a dose–response relation between the relative intensity of the unaccustomed eccentric exercise and mean pain intensity ratings. Mean pain intensity was not significantly related to systolic or diastolic blood pressure. There was no significant sex difference in pain intensity, although mens ratings, in contrast to expectations, tended to be higher than the womens ratings. ConclusionsThe negative findings, contrary to those predicted from previous experiments in which other types of noxious stimuli have been used, suggest that sex and blood pressure associations with pain intensity are stimulus dependent.