Table 2.

Summary of studies investigating acute exercise-induced hypoalgesia in individuals with different pain conditions.

Exercise type	Exercise form	Intensity	Duration	# of participants	Pain condition	Pain test modality	Pain outcome	Local site	Remote site	Findings	Year	Author
Aerobic	Bicycling	Increasing to 75% HRmax	Unknown	20	ME/CFS	Clinical	Pain intensity	—	—	No hypoalgesia	2017	Oosterwijck et al.141
Aerobic	Bicycling	VO2max test	8–12 min	25	Chronic pain	Cold	CPI	—	Arm	No hypoalgesia	2018	Chretien et al.18
Aerobic	Bicycling	1 KPa	5 min	12	Chronic Low back pain	Heat	HPI TSPh	—	Forearm Lower leg	↓ TSPh forearm	2009	Bialosky et al.9
Aerobic	Bicycling	80% VO2max	30 min	23	DOMS MODEL	Pressure	PPT	—	Arm	No hypoalgesia	2002	Dannecker et al.25
Aerobic	Bicycling	70% VO2max	20 min	8	Chronic low back pain	Pressure	PPI	—	Hand	↓PPI	2005	Hoffman et al.68
Aerobic	Bicycling	Increasing to 130 W	37 min	26	Chronic fatigue syndrome	Pressure	PPT	Lower leg	Hand Lower back Shoulder	↓PPTs (hyperalgesia)	2010	Meeus et al.123
Aerobic	Bicycling	Increasing to 130 W	37 min	21	Chronic low back pain	Pressure	PPT	Lower leg	Hand Lower back Shoulder	↑PPTs	2010	Meeus et al.123
Aerobic	Bicycling	1. 75% HRmax 2. Self-paced	Unknown	22	hronic fatigue syndrome	Pressure	PPT	Lower leg	Hand Lower back	↑PPT lower back (after self-paced) ↓PPTs calf/hand (after self-paced) (hyperalgesia) ↓PPTs (after 75% HRmax) (hyperalgesia)	2010	Van Oosterwijck et al.202
Aerobic	Bicycling	1. Increasing to 75% HRmax 2. Self-paced	1. Unknown 2. Individual	20	ME/CFS	Pressure	PPT	Lower leg	Hand Lower back	No hypoalgesia/some hyperalgesia	2010	Van Oosterwijck et al.202
Aerobic	Bicycling	1. 62% HRmax 2. Self-paced	20 min	21	Fibromyalgia	Pressure	PPT PPI PPTol	—	Hand	↑PPT and PPTol (both conditions) ↓PPI (both conditions)	2011	Newcomb et al.136
Aerobic	Bicycling	1. 75% HRmax 2. Self-paced	Unknown	22	WAD	Pressure	PPT	Lower leg	Hand Lower back	↑PPT lower back (after self-paced) ↓PPTs calf/hand (after self-paced) (hyperalgesia) ↓PPTs (after 75% HRmax) (hyperalgesia)	2012	Van Oosterwijck et al.203
Aerobic	Bicycling	Increasing to 75% HRmax	Maximum of 15 min	19	Fibromyalgia with chronic fatigue	Pressure	TSPp	—	Shoulder Hand	No hypoalgesia	2015	Meeus et al.122
Aerobic	Bicycling	Increasing to 75% HRmax	Maximum of 15 min	16	RA	Pressure	TSPp	—	Shoulder Hand	No hypoalgesia	2015	Meeus et al.122
Aerobic	Bicycling	75% of VO2max	15 min	61	Chronic MSK pain	Pressure	PPT PTTol TSPp	Thigh	Arm Shoulder Lower leg	↑PPTs ↑PPTol ↑TSPp (in high pain sensitive patients)	2016	Vaegter et al.197
Aerobic Aerobic	Bicycling Bicycling	1. 70% HRmax 2. 75%–85% HRmax 75% of VO2max	1. Continuous 20 min 2. Interval 5 × 4 min 15 min	15 14	Chronic fatigue syndrome Knee OA	Pressure Pressure	PPT PTTol	Thigh Thigh	Shoulder Hand Arm Shoulder Lower leg	↑PPT thigh after interval ↑PPTs	2016 2017	Sandler et al.164 Vaegter et al.194
Aerobic	Bicycling	75% of HRmax	30 min	21	WAD	Pressure	PPT	—	Neck Shin	No hypoalgesia	2017	Smith et al.172
Aerobic Aerobic	Bicycling Bicycling	Increasing to 75% HRmax 50 W	Unknown 12 min	40 20	Knee OA Chronic fatigue syndrome	Pressure Pressure	PPT TSPp	Thigh Knee Thigh	Forearm Shoulder	↑PPTs (if normal CPM) ↓PPTs (if abnormal CPM) No hyperalgesia	2017 2018	Fingleton et al.40 Malfliet et al.118
Aerobic	Bicycling	70% VO2max	30 min	27	Gulf veterans	Pressure Heat	PPT HPI	—	Hand	↑HPI (if pain) (hyperalgesia)	2010	Cook et al.19
Aerobic	Running	Bruce test	Fatigue	10	Fibromyalgia	Heat	TSPh	—	Hands	↑TSPh (hyperalgesia)	2001	Vierck et al.206
Aerobic	Running	5 km/hour	3 × 5min	5	Chronic fatigue syndrome	Pressure	PPT	—	Hands	↓PPTs (hyperalgesia)	2004	Whiteside et al.208
Aerobic Aerobic	Walking Walking	Self-selected 1. Continuous 1.3 m/second 2. Interval 1.3 m/second	4 min 1. 45 min 2. 3 × 15 min	20 27	Plantar fasciopathy Knee OA	Clinical pain PPT Clinical pain	Pain intensity during test PPT Pain intensity	Heel —	— —	No hypoalgesia ↑Pain intensity continuous walking (hyperalgesia)	2018 2017	Riel et al.156 Farrokhi et al.39
Aerobic	Stepping	50% of maximum number of steps in 1 minute	5 min	30	TMD	Pressure	PPI TSPp	—	Forearm	↓TSPp	2019	Nasri-Heir et al.129
Dynamic resistance	Leg exercises	1. 60% 1RM 2. Self-selected	2 exercises 6 × 10 repetitions	32	Fibromyalgia	Clinical	Pain intensity	—	—	Hyperalgesia	2018	da Cunha Ribeiro et al.24
Dynamic resistance Dynamic resistance	Knee extensions Knee extensions	1RM 8RM	6 × 10 repetitions 1 exercise 3 × 8 repetitions	20 21	Knee OA Patellar tendinopathy	Clinical Clinical pressure	Pain intensity DOMS Pain intensity during SLS PPT	Knee Knee shin	— Forearm	No change in pain intensity More DOMS than controls ↓Pain intensity ↑PPT shin	2013 2019	Germanou et al.51 Holden et al.70
Dynamic resistance	Arm-raises	Fast	6 min	24	Knee OA	Pressure	PPT	Shoulder	Thigh	↑PPT shoulder	2020	Hansen et al.59
Dynamic resistance	1. Hip abductions 2. Knee extensions	Load = 12RM	3 exercises 12 repetitions	30	PFP	Pressure	PPT PTTol TSPp	Knee Lower leg	Elbow (PPT)	↑PPT (lower leg) ↑PPTol (after knee exercises)	2019	Straszek et al.180
Dynamic resistance	Lower-body circuit	60% 1RM	3 exercises 10 repetitions	11	Knee OA	Pressure	PPT PPTol	Thigh Knee Shin	Shoulder Arm Forearm Hand	No hypoalgesia	2014	Burrows et al.17
Dynamic Resistance	Upper-body circuit	60% 1RM	3 exercises 10 repetitions	11	Knee OA	Pressure	PPT PPTol	Shoulder Arm Forearm Hand	Thigh Knee Shin	↑PPTs (across sites)	2014	Burrows et al.17
Dynamic resistance Dynamic resistance	Back extensions Repeated back movements	Bodyweight Lifting 5 kg	3 × 15 repetitions 7 min	12 18	Chronic low back pain Chronic low back pain	Heat Pressure Heat Cold	HPI TSPh PPT HPT CPT TSPp	— Back	Forearm Lower Leg Hand	↓TSPb forearm ↑CPT hand	2009 2019	Bialosky et al.9 Kuithan et al.104
Dynamic resistance	Cervical flexion	Head weight	10 × 10 seconds	13	Chronic neck pain	Clinical pain Pressure	Pain intensity PPT	Neck	Shoulder	↓Pain intensity ↑PPTs	2018	Galindez-Ibarbengoetxea et al.47
Isometric	Elbow flexion	1. 25% MVC 2. 25% MVC 3. 100% MVC	1. 2 min 2. Fatigue 3. 3 reps	15	Fibromyalgia	Pressure	PPT PPI	—	Hand	No hypoalgesia	2011	Hoeger Bement et al.66
Isometric	Handgrip	25% MVC	3 min	18	Diabetic neuropathy	Heat	HPI TSPh	Hand Forearm	—	↓HPI and TSPh (if no pain) No changes (if pain)	2014	Knauf and Koltyn90
Isometric	Handgrip	25% MVC	3 min	64	Menstrual pain	Pressure	PPT		Forearm Shin	↑PPTs	2018	Travers et al.186
Isometric	Handgrip	30% MVC	90 seconds	12	Fibromyalgia	Pressure Heat	PPT HPI	Forearm	Forearm	↓PPTs ↑HPI (hyperalgesia)	2005	Staud et al.177
Isometric	Knee extension	20%–25% MVC	Fatigue	14	Fibromyalgia	Pressure	PPT	Thigh	—	↓PPT (hyperalgesia)	1996	Kosek et al.100
Isometric	Knee extension	10%–15% MVC	Fatigue	17	Fibromyalgia	Pressure	PPT	Thigh	Shoulder	↑PPT (shoulder)	2007	Kadetoff and Kosek82
Isometric	Knee extension	50% MVC	Fatigue	66	Knee OA	Pressure	PPT	Thigh	Shoulder	↑PPTs	2013	Kosek et al.102
Isometric	Knee extension	50% MVC	Fatigue	47	Hip OA	Pressure	PPT	Thigh	Shoulder	↑PPTs	2013	Kosek et al.102
Isometric	Knee extension	30% MVC	90 seconds	61	Chronic MSK pain	Pressure	PPT PTTol TSPp	Thigh	Arm Shoulder Lower leg	↑PPTs ↑PPTol	2016	Vaegter et al.197
Isometric	Knee extension	30% MVC	90 seconds	14	Knee OA	Pressure	PPT PTTol	Thigh	Arm Shoulder Lower leg	↑PPTs	2017	Vaegter et al.194
Isometric	Knee extension	10% MVC	5 min	40	Knee OA	Pressure	PPT	Thigh Knee	Forearm	↑PPTs (if normal CPM) ↓PPTs (if abnormal CPM)	2017	Fingleton et al.40
Isometric Isometric	Knee extension Knee extension	30% MVC 30% MVC	Fatigue 5 min	130 46	Fibromyalgia RA	Pressure Pressure	PPT PPT	— Thigh	Shoulder Shoulder	↑PPT ↑PPTs	2017 2018	Tour et al.185 Lofgren et al.117
Isometric	Knee extension	70% MVC	5 × 45 seconds	21	Patellar tendinopathy	Pressure clinical	Pain intensity during SLS PPT	Knee Shin	Forearm	↓Pain intensity ↑PPT shin	2019	Holden et al.70
Isometric	1. Knee extension 2. Shoulder rotation	20%–25% MVC	Fatigue	20	Shoulder pain	Pressure	PPT	Thigh Shoulder	Shoulder Thigh	↑PPTs (during knee extension)	2010	Lannersten and Kosek107
Isometric	1. Knee extension 2. Shoulder rotation	20%–25% MVC	Fatigue	20	Fibromyalgia	Pressure	PPT	Thigh Shoulder	Shoulder Thigh	No hypoalgesia	2010	Lannersten and Kosek107
Isometric	Shoulder abduction	1 kg	Fatigue	19	Chronic shoulder pain	Pressure	PPT	Shoulder	—	↑PPT	2003	Persson et al.148
Isometric	Shoulder abduction	Weight of arms	Fatigue	22	Fibromyalgia	Pressure	PPT	Shoulder	Shin	↓PPT shin (hyperalgesia)	2012	Ge et al.48
Isometric	Shoulder abduction	20%–25% MVC	5 min	24	Shoulder pain	Pressure	PPT	Shoulder	Thigh Shin	↑PPTs	2016	Kuppens et al.105
Isometric	Squat	70% MVC	1 exercise 5 × 45 sec repetitions	6	Patella tendinopathy	Clinical	Pain intensity during SLS	—	—	↓Pain intensity	2015	Rio et al.158
Isometric	Tooth clenching	—	Fatigue	20	TMD	Pressure	PPT	Jaw	Forearm	↑PPT jaw	2019	Lanefelt et al.106
Isometric	Wall squat	Bodyweight	3 min	21	WAD	Pressure	PPT	—	Neck Shin	↑PPTs	2017	Smith et al.172

The table is organized according to exercise type, exercise form, pain test modality, and year of publication.

DOMS, delayed-onset muscle soreness; HPI, heat pain intensity; HPT, heat pain threshold; HRmax, maximum heart rate; MVC, maximal voluntary contraction; PPI, pressure pain intensity; PPT, pressure pain threshold; PPTol, pressure pain tolerance; RM, repetition maximum; RPE, rating of perceived exertion; SLS, single-leg stand; TSPh, temporal summation of heat pain; TSPp, temporal summation of pressure pain; VO₂max, maximal aerobic capacity.