Table 2.

The effect of age on exercise-induced muscle damage in women

Study	Subjects	Age (years)	Exercise	Main outcomes	Effect of age on magnitude of change	Effect of age on time to recovery	Other findings
Clarkson and Dedrick [50]	20 healthy females (10 young, 10 older)	24 ± 3, 67 ± 5	24 reps eccentric contractions of elbow flexors 115% maximal isometric strength	Relaxed elbow angle Flexed elbow angle Muscle soreness CK	↑* ↔ ↔ ↔	↑ ↔ ↔ Not recovered (120-h)
Dedrick and Clarkson [51]	20 healthy females (10 young, 10 older)	24 ± 3, 67 ± 5	24 reps eccentric contractions of elbow flexors 115% maximal isometric strength	MIVC Muscle soreness Reaction time Movement time	↑ ↔ ↔ ↔	↑ ↔ ↔ ↔	No significant difference in magnitude of strength loss, but older recovered more slowly
Ploutz-Snyder et al. [52]	12 healthy females (6 young, 6 older)	23 ± 4, 66 ± 5	10 × 10 reps unilateral eccentric contractions of knee extensors 75% eccentric 1-RM	Concentric 1-RM Eccentric 1-RM	↑* ↑*	↑ ↑	12-wk RT programme attenuated declines in muscular strength, losing only 14% (Con) and 12% (Ecc) of 1-RM strength

reps repetitions, 1-RM one-repetition maximum, MIVC maximal isometric voluntary contraction, CK creatine kinase, Con concentric, Ecc Eccentric, h hours, wk week, ↑ increase, ↔ no change

*Significantly different from baseline