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> There's no need to retreat to the 16th century to find papers to clutter our
> discussion-. Instead, it is the initial over-exertion/traumatic damage, followed by
> free-radical/inflammatory attack that causes post ex muscle soreness and
> stiffness. By providing energy early to the damaged muscle cell, recovery
> activities, including sweeping away of debris and damaging chemicals, you
> reduce the continuing damage of the tissue, just as you would an injured
> tendon.
>
I completely agree that it is the traumatic damage that results in
white cell infiltration of the muscle. The damage to the muscle can
be seen immediately post exercise but pain is generally not evidenced
until white blood cells are noted upon biopsy. I have the Bucci
texts on ergongenic aids and his rehab text. I see nothing in his
rehab text on the use of carbohydrates to minimize soreness. His
text on ergongenic aids does mention the role of carbhoydrates after
bouts of eccentric exercise, which is the form of muscle contraction
most likely to result in soreness, e.g.. downhill running. This use
of carbohydrate is not to prevent soreness. If you have that text
you can look on page 13. Eccentric exercise recruits type 2 fibers.
These fibers are, as I am sure you know, the fast twitch fibers
whose preferred energy source is glycogen or glucose. By heavily
recruiting these fibers you almost certainly deplete glycogen and
they are, therefore, most receptive to carbohydrate replenishment.
> of the science involving post-traumatic free radical damage, additional
> necrosis caused by circulatory compromise
you have seen cases of necrotic tissue post exercise?
etc. would clarify your
> understanding of the benefit of having fast energy available, not
> exclusively for muscle cells, but for the heart,
Cardiac muscle uses almost exclusively fats as an energy source so
how would carbohydrates increase its function? Are you suggesting
that carbs increase cardiac output and increase perfusion of the
musculature? Heart rate does increase after ingestion of food..
This is a result of the increased demand of the splanchnic bed as
digestion occurs.
> organs, to hasten the cleanup?
This sounds like an interesting theory but I'm still curious to hear
if you have ever seen a well conducted study demonstrates that
carbohydrate intake results in decreased soreness as opposed to
hastening recovery due to glycogen resynthesis?
> Actually, I think I read the DOMS stuff in Luke Bucci's Nutrition Applied to
> Injury Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine.
See above.
>
Perhaps the best way to minimize delayed onset muscle soreness is to
expose the animal to limited bouts of exercise that cause such
soreness PRIOR to the competition. DOMS occurs generally upon initial
exposure to eccentric exercise. A subsequent bout of similar
exercise within a few weeks will not produce soreness, or will
produce less. This is well demonstrate in humans and rodents. I'd
imagine it would be similar in other mammals. We are currently
investigating the mechanism behind this. In our current study we are
inducing moderate to severe soreness by exposing subjects to a bout
of eccentric exercise. We are simultaneously looking at the emg
activity to the muscle, or how many fibers are being recruited to
accomplish the task. Two weeks later the subjects repeat the
exercise and as expected have no soreness. What we are finding is
that a greater number of muscle fibers are recruited to do the work
the second time around, effectively distributing the force across a
greater number of fibers and doing less damage in the process.
Interesting albeit preliminary data. Looking forward to further
discussions.
Beth Glace, M.S.
Sports Nutritionist
lb@nismat.org
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