Effect of Body Fat Percentage on Muscle Damage Induced by High-Intensity Eccentric Exercise

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the impact of percent body fat (%BF) on muscle damage after high-intensity eccentric exercise. Thirty healthy male undergraduates (mean age: 22.0 ± 2 years, height: 176.9 ± 5 cm, weight: 75.8 ± 11.6 kg) participated in this study, and they were classified according to their %BF into a high %fat group (HFG, ≥20%, n = 15) and a low %fat group (LFG, ≤15%, n = 15). For eccentric exercise, two sets of 25 reps were performed on a modified preacher curl machine using the elbow flexor muscle. Maximal isometric strength, muscle soreness (passive and active), creatine kinase (CK), and myoglobin (Mb) were measured as indices of muscle damage. The data were analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA. The results show that there is a significant group–time interaction for both CK and Mb after eccentric exercise (p = 0.007, p = 0.015, respectively), with a greater increase in the HFG than in the LFG. However, there was no significant group–time interaction for maximal isometric strength and muscle soreness (passive and active) (p > 0.05). These results suggest that %BF is a factor that alters the muscle damage indices CK and Mb, which indicate membrane disruption, after eccentric exercise.

The Effects of Age and Body Fat Content on Post-Downhill Run Recovery Following Whole Body Cryotherapy

“…Participants were randomly assigned as cryotherapy (WBC, n = 26) and control (CON, n = 15). To assess the influence of differing ages and body fat contents, the WBC group was sub-divided into old (OLD, ≥45, mean ± SD age 58.1 ± 7.9 years, n = 10) and young (YNG, <40, mean ± SD age 29.2 ± 7.6 years, n = 13) [ 31 ], as well as high fat (HFAT, ≥20%, mean ± SD body fat 23.0 ± 2.9%, n = 10) and low fat (LFAT, ≤15%, mean ± SD 13.8 ± 1.4%, n = 8) groups [ 30 ]. Three WBC participants were aged 40–44 and 8 WBC participants had 15.5–19.5% body fat, which were not part of these sub-groups.…”

“…Since downhill running is a whole-body exercise that stresses several physiological systems, it is of interest to determine if WBC could enhance recovery following this modality. Other commonly adopted damage protocols, such as isolated eccentric leg extensions [ 28 ] and arm curls [ 29 , 30 ] may be less sports specific, so any WBC-induced responses may be less applicable for general sports recovery. Despite the extensive literature on downhill running and WBC, no study has yet to assess the impact of WBC on recovery following a downhill running bout.…”

Does Obesity Affect the Severity of Exercise-Induced Muscle Injury?

“…In their recent study that used an eccentric exercise protocol for the elbow flexor similar to the one used by Kim and So, 14 Yoon and Kim 15 reported that while BMI can be used to make a simple diagnosis of obesity, it does not accurately represent the amount of adipose tissues; thus, they examined the association between %BF and muscle injury. They divided 30 healthy male university students into a high %BF (≥20%) group and a low %BF (≤15%) group according to their %BF and instructed them to perform high-intensity eccentric exercise.…”

“…Several studies have reported that obesity can affect the markers associated with exercise-induced muscle injury. 14 , 15 , 31 - 33 Salvadori et al 32 performed an exercise test in 10 healthy subjects with a mean BMI of 22 kg/m 2 and 11 obese patients with a mean BMI of 41 kg/m 2 using a cycle ergometer and reported that the obese patients showed higher increases in CK levels than did the healthy subjects. Paschalis et al 33 divided 22 healthy women into a lean group (BMI, 18.5–24.9 kg/m 2 ; mean BMI, 21.2 kg/m 2 ) and an overweight group (BMI, 25.0–33.0 kg/m 2 ; mean BMI, 29.5 kg/m 2 ) and instructed them to perform eccentric exercise of the knee extensor using an isokinetic dynamometer.…”

“…[10][11][12] Several studies have reported that the higher the levels of the body composition markers such as body mass index (BMI) and percent body fat (%BF), the more severe the muscle injury after eccentric exercise and the more delayed the recovery. [13][14][15][16] Kim and So 14 reported that individuals with a high BMI had greater loss of maximal strength and increase in the severity of DOMS and CK levels after eccentric exercise. Margaritelis et al 16 also reported that a group with high %BF had greater reduction in muscle function and increase in DOMS and CK levels after eccentric exercise than did a group with lower %BF.…”