Effect of Pre-Exercise Heat Pack Treatment on Markers of Muscle Damage After Resistance Exercise

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the effect of pre-exercise heat pack treatment on muscle activity and markers of muscle damage after exercise-induced damage.METHODS: Ten healthy male university students were tested for 3 weeks. They were exposed to three conditions (non-warm-up exercise, warm-up exercise, and heat pack treatment) before exercise. The experiment was conducted at 1-week intervals for every participant. The warm-up exercise was performed by combining a modified active warm-up with a cycle ergometer and an isokinetic dynamometer. The main exercise, which modified the exercise-induced muscle damage protocol, was conducted by flexing and extending the knee joint using an isokinetic dynamometer. The heat pack treatment before the exercise involved moist heat application for 20 min.RESULTS: The changes in blood muscle fatigue markers and blood muscle damage markers were not significantly different between the groups (α>.05). However, significant differences were observed in the time immediately after exercise, 10-min recovery, 30-min recovery, and 60-min recovery (<i>p</i><.05). A statistically significant difference was observed in the change in pain in the heat pack treatment group (<i>p</i><.05).CONCLUSIONS: Heat pack treatment for 20 min before exercise did not minimize the muscle damage markers and fatigue markers following exercise-induced damage, but reduced immediate muscle soreness. Use of heat pack treatment was associated with a change in muscle activity and improvement in certain aspects of muscle soreness.