Eccentric calf muscle exercise produces a greater acute reduction in Achilles tendon thickness than concentric exercise
Grigg, Nicole, Wearing, Scott C., & Smeathers, James E. (2009) Eccentric calf muscle exercise produces a greater acute reduction in Achilles tendon thickness than concentric exercise. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 43(4), pp. 280-283.
Objective: To investigate the acute effects of isolated eccentric and concentric calf muscle exercise on Achilles tendon sagittal thickness. ----------
Design: Within-subject, counterbalanced, mixed design. ----------
Setting: Institutional. ----------
Participants: 11 healthy, recreationally active male adults. ----------
Interventions: Participants performed an exercise protocol, which involved isolated eccentric loading of the Achilles tendon of a single limb and isolated concentric loading of the contralateral, both with the addition of 20% bodyweight. ----------
Main outcome measurements: Sagittal sonograms were acquired prior to, immediately following and 3, 6, 12 and 24 h after exercise. Tendon thickness was measured 2 cm proximal to the superior aspect of the calcaneus. ----------
Results: Both loading conditions resulted in an immediate decrease in normalised Achilles tendon thickness. Eccentric loading induced a significantly greater decrease than concentric loading despite a similar impulse (−0.21 vs −0.05, p<0.05). Post-exercise, eccentrically loaded tendons recovered exponentially, with a recovery time constant of 2.5 h. The same exponential function did not adequately model changes in tendon thickness resulting from concentric loading. Even so, recovery pathways subsequent to the 3 h time point were comparable. Regardless of the exercise protocol, full tendon thickness recovery was not observed until 24 h. ----------
Conclusions: Eccentric loading invokes a greater reduction in Achilles tendon thickness immediately after exercise but appears to recover fully in a similar time frame to concentric loading.
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|Item Type:||Journal Article|
|Keywords:||Achilles Tendon, Morphology, Eccentric Exercise, Tendinopathy, Rehabilitation|
|Subjects:||Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES (110000) > HUMAN MOVEMENT AND SPORTS SCIENCE (110600)|
|Divisions:||Current > QUT Faculties and Divisions > Faculty of Health
Current > Institutes > Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
Current > Schools > School of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences
|Deposited On:||06 May 2010 03:47|
|Last Modified:||29 Feb 2012 14:06|
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