Eur J Appl Physiol (2008) 104:531–539 DOI 10.1007/s00421-008-0806-7 123 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Comparison between old and young men for responses to fast velocity maximal lengthening contractions of the elbow Xexors Dale W. Chapman · M. Newton · M. R. McGuigan · K. Nosaka Accepted: 10 June 2008 / Published online: 27 June 2008  Springer-Verlag 2008 Abstract Controversy exists concerning the susceptibility of elderly individuals to eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. This study investigated the hypothesis that muscle damage induced by fast maximal lengthening contractions would be greater for old than young men. Ten old (64 § 4 years) and young (25 § 6 years) men performed 30 maxi- mal voluntary lengthening contractions of the elbow Xexors at an angular velocity of 210° s ¡1 . Prior to exercise, no signiWcant diVerences were evident between groups for criterion measures. A signiWcant (P < 0.05) group £ time interaction was found only for isometric strength and mus- cle soreness with the old group showing signiWcantly slower recovery of strength and less development of sore- ness compared with the young group. These results did not support the hypothesis that old men would be more suscep- tible to muscle damage, but conWrmed a previous study reporting that recovery of muscle strength was slower for old than young individuals. Keywords Eccentric exercise · Muscle damage · DOMS · Muscle strength · Optimum angle · Creatine kinase Introduction Muscle mass and strength decrease with ageing, and this process is often referred to as sarcopenia (Deschenes 2004; Dirks and Leeuwenburgh 2005). It is documented that age- ing aVects type II (fast twitch) more than type I (slow twitch) muscle Wbres (Larsson et al. 1979; Lexell et al. 1983). To minimise the deleterious eVects of sarcopenia, resistance training is preferred (Deschenes 2004) and it has been reported that the inclusion of lengthening (eccentric) contractions into resistance training results in greater strength gains (Colliander and Tesch 1990). It has also been demonstrated that eccentric training (training with length- ening contractions) results in greater type II Wbre hyper- trophy than concentric training (training with shortening contractions) (Hortobágyi et al. 1996). Furthermore, Shepstone et al. (2005) showed that fast velocity (210° s ¡1 ) eccentric training induced greater muscle hypertrophy especially for type II Wbres than slow velocity (20° s ¡1 ) eccentric training. Thus, it appears that exercise consisting of fast velocity lengthening contractions is of greater ben- eWt to older adults in preventing type II Wbre atrophy with ageing. However, it is important to note that exercise con- sisting of lengthening contractions (eccentric exercise) induces muscle damage (Clarkson and Dedrick 1988; Fielding et al. 1991). Studies comparing young and old animals have reported a greater magnitude of muscle damage and slower recov- ery for the old animals (Brooks and Faulkner 1990; Rader and Faulkner 2006). ConXicting reports exist in human studies concerning the responses of old individuals to eccentric exercise in comparison with young individuals. Some studies (Dedrick and Clarkson 1990; Fielding et al. 1991; Manfredi et al. 1991) have supported the Wndings of the animal studies for a greater decrease and slower recovery D. W. Chapman · M. Newton · M. R. McGuigan · K. Nosaka School of Exercise, Biomedical and Health Science, Edith Cowan University, 100 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia D. W. Chapman Department of Physiology, Australian Institute of Sport, Leverrier Street, Bruce, ACT 2617, Australia D. W. Chapman (&) Department of Physiology, Australian Institute of Sport, P.O. Box 176, Belconnen, ACT 2616, Australia e-mail: dale.chapman@ausport.gov.au