Conclusion Overall , our findings do not support the presence of a secondary loss of strength following an acute muscle injury , and strongly suggest that strength , on average , recovers steadily over the first 3 days post-injury
Background An immediate loss of strength follows virtually all types of muscle injury but there is debate whether the initial strength loss is maximal or if a secondary loss of strength occurs during the first 3 days post-injury .
Objective The objective of this analysis was to conduct a systematic review and meta- analysis of the research literature to determine if a secondary loss of strength occurs after an injurious initiating event .
Influence of previous concentric exercise on eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage.
This study investigated whether a fatiguing concentric exercise performed immediately before eccentric exercise would exacerbate eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage .  One arm of nine female subjects ( mean + /- s : 23.3 + /- 6.7 years ) performed 12 maximal eccentric actions of the elbow flexors ( ECC ) , and the other arm performed 100 repetitions of isokinetic concentric actions of the elbow flexors followed by the same eccentric exercise ( CON-ECC ) . The two exercise regimens ( ECC and CON-ECC ) were separated by 2 weeks and presented in a counterbalanced order . Changes in muscle soreness level , maximal isometric force generation , relaxed and flexed elbow joint angle , upper arm circumference and plasma creatine kinase activity were compared between the ECC and CON-ECC conditions . All measures changed significantly after both ECC and CON-ECC ; however , there were significant differences in the changes between the conditions . A lower level of soreness , a faster recovery of maximal isometric force generation , a smaller decrease in relaxed elbow joint angle and a smaller increase in upper arm circumference and creatine kinase activity were evident after the CON-ECC condition compared to the ECC condition . Thus , it would seem that muscle damage was attenuated by performance of previous concentric exercise . An additional experiment using a different group of subjects ( n = 5 ) showed that warm-up exercise before the eccentric exercise also attenuated eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage
Conclusion Overall , our findings do not support the presence of a secondary loss of strength following an acute muscle injury , and strongly suggest that strength , on average , recovers steadily over the first 3 days post-injury
Background An immediate loss of strength follows virtually all types of muscle injury but there is debate whether the initial strength loss is maximal or if a secondary loss of strength occurs during the first 3 days post-injury .
Objective The objective of this analysis was to conduct a systematic review and meta- analysis of the research literature to determine if a secondary loss of strength occurs after an injurious initiating event .