ABSTRACT
This study aimed to verify the time course recovery of muscle edema within the quadriceps femoris and functional performance after lower-body single- and multi-joint exercises. For this within-participant unilateral and contralateral experimental design, fourteen untrained young males performed a unilateral knee extension exercise (KE), and a unilateral leg press (LP) exercise in a counterbalanced order. At pre-, post-, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 96 h after exercise, the peak torque (PT), unilateral countermovement jump (uCMJ) performance, and rectus femoris (RF) and vastus lateralis (VL) muscle thicknesses were recorded in both legs. The PT decreased immediately after (p = 0.01) both exercises (KE and LP) and was fully recovered 24 h after KE (p = 0.38) and 48 h after LP (p = 0.68). Jump height and power, in the uCMJ, followed the same PT recovery pattern after both exercises. However, vertical stiffness (Kvert) was not affected at any time point after both protocols. The RF thickness increased after both exercises (p = 0.01) and was fully restored 48 h after KE (p = 0.86) and 96 h after LP (p = 1.00). The VL thickness increased after both exercises (p = 0.01) and was fully restored 24 h after LP (p = 1.00) and 48 h after KE (p = 1.00). The LP exercise, compared to KE, induced more prolonged impairment of functional performance and delayed recovery of RF muscle edema. However, the VL edema-induced muscle swelling recovery was delayed after the KE exercise. The different recovery kinetics between functional performance and muscle damage should be taken into consideration depending on the objectives of the next training sessions.
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the acute effects of seated and supine knee extension exercise on muscle swelling, torque, and work output. Twelve resistance-trained men performed two isokinetic concentric-only knee-extension training protocols at different hip positions in a counter-balanced order. They completed the knee extension exercise in the seated (hip angle at 85°) and supine (hip angle at 180°) positions. The torque and work output were assessed during each set. Moreover, muscle thickness of the middle and proximal vastus lateralis and rectus femoris were evaluated before and after each protocol and used as an indicator of muscle swelling. Middle rectus femoris and proximal vastus lateralis thickness increased significantly (p=0.01) with no difference between exercise variations. However, the middle vastus lateralis thickness increased (p=0.01) only after the seated knee extension exercise (~7%). Knee extensors' peak torque and work output were approximately 8% higher (p=0.04) in the seated when compared to the supine hip position. There was a similar decrease in torque and work output throughout both protocols (p=0.98). In conclusion, seated knee extension exercises produced greater torque, work output, and muscle swelling in the vastus lateralis when compared to the supine knee extension exercise.
