Pliometric

BackgroundThe anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture accounting for about 50% of all knee ligament injuries. The rehabilitation program requires a long time to rebuild muscle strength and to reestablish joint mobility and neuromuscular control. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the muscle strength recovery in athletes with ACL reconstruction. MethodsWe enrolled soccer atlethes, with isolated anterior cruciate ligament rupture treated with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft artroscopic reconstruction...

Oxidative stress with acute/chronic exercise has been so far examined using exercise involving a combination of concentric and eccentric contractions, but skeletal muscles are likely to be injured to a greater extent by pliometric contractions. In the present study, the effects of acute and chronic bouts of downhill running exercise on mitochondrial hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) generation (fluorimetric detection of a dimer with homovanillic acid in presence of horseradish peroxidase) and oxygen consumption in conjunction with antioxidant enzymes activity were examined...

Skeletal muscles are injured by their own contractions. Compared with muscles in young animals, those in old animals are injured more easily and more severely and regenerate less well afterward. Injection of a myotoxin (bupivacaine) causes complete degeneration of fibers in extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles of rats, followed by full regeneration within 60 days. We tested the specific hypothesis that, 3 days after a protocol of pliometric (lengthening) contractions, the newly regenerated muscle fibers in bupivacaine-treated EDL muscles in both young and old rats would show a lesser deficit in maximum force and fewer damaged fibers than muscles in nontreated EDL muscles...

The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of free radicals in the injury induced by a protocol of repeated pliometric (lengthening) contractions to the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle in situ in rats. Previous data have indicated that prior treatment with the antioxidant polyethylene glycol-superoxide dismutase reduced the damage that was apparent at 3 days following this type of exercise. Three hours and 3 days following the protocol, the magnitude of the semiquinone-derived free radical signal observed by electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR) was not different for exercised and non-exercised skeletal muscles...

We tested the null hypothesis that the severity of injury to single muscle fibers following a single pliometric (lengthening) contraction is not dependent on the velocity of stretch. Each single permeabilized fiber obtained from extensor digitorum longus muscles of rats was maximally activated and then exposed to a single stretch of either 5, 10, or 20% strain [% of fiber length (Lf)] at a velocity of 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 Lf/s. The force deficit, the difference between maximum tetanic isometric force (Po) before and after the stretch expressed as a percentage of the control value for Po before the stretch, provided an estimate of the magnitude of muscle injury...

OBJECTIVES: To determine the extent of muscle weakness in older female hip fracture patients compared with healthy older and young women; to determine the extent to which this weakness is caused by a decline of the force produced per unit area of muscle rather than by a decline in muscle bulk; and to investigate the mechanism of the decline in force per unit area. DESIGN: This was an open study of three groups of subjects, two age matched older groups and one young group...

Alteration of resting free intracellular [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]i) homeostasis has been implicated in the aetiology of skeletal muscle fibre injury following damaging pliometric (lengthening or 'eccentric') contractions. Quantitative measurements of resting [Ca2+]i in skeletal muscles following acute or long-term exercise involving such injurious contractions have not been performed. We tested the hypothesis that, following an acute bout of pliometric exercise, the maximum force production (Po) of isolated skeletal muscles would be significantly reduced and that this deficit in force would be accompanied by an elevation in resting skeletal muscle [Ca2+]i...

Three days after a protocol of 225 pliometric (lengthening) contractions was administered to in situ extensor digitorum longus muscles of rats, the force deficit was 64 +/- 7% and the percentage of damaged muscle fibers was 38 +/- 5% of the control values. We then tested the hypothesis that at 3 h and 3 days after the protocol an elevation in the muscle vitamin E content would decrease the force deficit, the percentage of damaged muscle fibers, and the serum activities of creatine kinase and pyruvate kinase...

For single pliometric (lengthening) contractions initiated from optimal fiber length (Lf), the most important factor determining the subsequent force deficit is the work input during the stretch. We tested the hypothesis that regardless of the initial length, the force deficit is primarily a function of the work input. Extensor digitorum longus muscles of mice were maximally activated in situ and lengthened at 2 Lf/s from one of three initial fiber lengths (90, 100, or 120% of Lf) to one of three final fiber lengths (150, 160, or 170% of Lf)...

We tested the hypothesis that inspiratory muscles, like other skeletal muscles, would exert greater force under pliometric conditions (being lengthened while active) than under isometric or miometric (active shortening) conditions. Maximal inspiratory pressure-flow curves of the respiratory system are analogous to the force-velocity curves for isolated muscle (Agostoni and Fenn, J. Appl. Physiol. 15:349-353, 1960). We measured esophageal pressure (Pes) and plethysmographic flow (V) at relaxation volume of the respiratory system in six trained subjects inspiring maximally through graded resistors (miometric), against a closed airway (isometric), and while constant expiratory flows were forced by a reduced pressure source at the airway opening (pliometric)...

The decay of pressure developed by the inspiratory muscles during expiration (PmusI) has not been studied in subjects with increased respiratory impedance such as in kyphoscoliosis. PmusI was compared in 11 anesthetized patients with kyphoscoliosis with that in 11 anesthetized normal subjects. PmusI was obtained according to the following equation: PmusI(t) = Ers.V(t) - K1V(t) - K2V2(t), where V is volume and V is airflow at any instant t during spontaneous expiration, Ers is the passive elastance, and K1V + K2V2 is the flow resistance (curvilinear in both groups because of the endotracheal tube and the intrinsic resistance in the kyphoscoliotics) of the total respiratory system...