Changes in Fatigue Recovery and Muscle Damage Enzymes after Deep-Sea Water Thalassotherapy

The influence of traditional Thai massage on recovery from gastrocnemius muscle fatigue: A single-blind randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVE

To determine the effects of traditional Thai massage (TTM) on improving fatigue recovery and fatigue-related parameters of the gastrocnemius muscle after a heel-raise exercise.

DESIGN

A single-blind randomised controlled trial.

SETTING

Mae Fah Luang University Hospital, Thailand.

PARTICIPANTS

Fifty-four healthy participants were randomly assigned to two groups: TTM (n = 27; 51.85 % women; mean age 23.15 ± 4.90 years; number of exercises/week: 4.78 ± 1.58) and control (n = 27; 59.26 % women; mean age 22.63 ± 4.88 years; number of exercises/week: 4.48 ± 1.25).

INTERVENTIONS

After the participants performed a heel-raise exercise to induce fatigue of the gastrocnemius muscle, they received either 30 min of TTM to the gastrocnemius muscle or 30 min of control (29 min of rest and 1 min total gastrocnemius stretching).

OUTCOME MEASURES

The outcome measures were the median frequency (MDF) of the electromyography signal, muscle power (MP) and feelings of muscle fatigue (FMF). All the outcome measures were evaluated before (T1) and after (T2) the fatigue-inducement protocol as well as immediately (T3), 1 h (T4) and 2 h (T5) after the interventions.

RESULTS

The results show that MDF and MP were significantly increased and FMF significantly decreased in both groups immediately after the interventions and at 1 h and 2 h after the interventions (repeated measures ANOVA: p < .05). In the between-group comparisons, participants in the TTM group showed significantly greater improvement than those in the control group on all outcomes at all post-intervention assessment time points (T3, T4, T5), reflecting faster recovery from muscle fatigue (ANCOVA: p < .05).

CONCLUSION

TTM proved an effective intervention for maximising recovery from fatigue of the gastrocnemius muscle.

Antifatigue and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Cervus elaphus L., Angelica gigas Nakai, and Astragalus membranaceus Bunge Complex Extracts in Physically Fatigued Mice

Fatigue is a common complaint among people under stress, causing an array of negative effects on physical function. In this study, we investigated the antifatigue and anti-inflammatory effects of Cervus elaphus L., Angelica gigas Nakai, and Astragalus membranaceus Bunge complex extracts (CAA) using a treadmill stress test in animal models. The mice were administered various doses of CAA (50-200 mg/kg bw per day) once daily for 21 days. After exhaustive treadmill exercise, the running time of CAA-treated mice increased 1.5 times; fatigue-related biochemical parameters, including lactate dehydrogenase (∼30%), creatine kinase (∼20%), and proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β (∼10%), and IL-6 (∼10%) in the serum and muscle tissue were downregulated compared with those in exercised control mice. This study provides strong evidence for the prevention of CAA-induced inflammatory incidences mediated by the blockade of nuclear factor-κB activation. Collectively, our results indicate that CAA can alleviate symptoms of fatigue in mice as an effective anti-inflammatory agent.

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Lactobacillus fermentum CQPC08 Attenuates Exercise-Induced Fatigue in Mice Through Its Antioxidant Effects and Effective Intervention of Galactooligosaccharide

Aim

The purpose of this study is to study the antioxidant effect of Lactobacillus fermentum CQPC08 (CQPC08) on exercise-induced fatigue, and the beneficial intervention of GOS on CQPC08.

Methods

We use the treadmill to establish a fatigue model caused by exercise, and perform drug treatment after exercise. We tested the exhaustive exercise time of mice; investigated the changes of mice body weight, liver index, histopathology, serum biochemical indicators and mRNA expression levels of oxidative and inflammation-related genes; and assessed the potential fatigue inhibitory effect of CQPC08, and the anti-oxidation effect of the combination of GOS and CQPC08.

Results

The results suggest that CQPC08 and combination with GOS reduces fatigue-induced oxidative damage of the liver, and it decreases blood urea nitrogen (BUN), lactic acid (LA), glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT), malonaldehyde (MDA), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6 in serum. Higher levels of serum catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were found. Treatment with the CQPC08 and combination with GOS correlates with lower relative mRNA expression levels of neuronal NOS (nNOS), iNOS, and TNF-α, and with higher mRNA expression levels of catalase and copper/zinc (Cu/Zn) and manganese (Mn) SOD enzymes in the liver and muscles.

Conclusion

These results suggest that CQPC08 can resolve exercise-induced fatigue by improving antioxidant ability in mice, and the combination of GOS and CQPC08 enhances this ability of CQPC08.

Physiological and Psychological Effects of Treadmill Overtraining Implementation

Simple Summary

Overtraining occurs when an imbalance between training stress and recovery exists, and it is prevalent in athletes, soldiers, physical education, and health education undergraduates as well as a number of female and male adolescents. Despite a broad body of evidence concerning physiological and psychological correlates of this syndrome, the pathomechanisms of overtraining are still poorly understood. This illustrates the need to establish animal models of this disorder. This article outlines and discusses physiological and psychological effects of the current established overtraining model, based on an eight-week exhaustive treadmill exercise that reveals the involvement of imbalanced energy expenditure, exacerbated inflammatory response, increased intestinal permeability, and anxiety status in the development and onset of overtraining. This study highlights the maladaptation of overtraining and provides an animal model to determine the effectiveness of possible strategies, including nutrition and monitoring, for treatment and prevention of overtraining syndromes in future studies.

Abstract

Overtraining in athletes usually causes profound and lasting deleterious effects on the maintenance of health and exercise capacity. Here, we established an overtraining animal model to investigate the physiological modulation for future strategic applications in vivo. We subjected C57BL/6 mice to exhaustive treadmill exercises daily for 8 weeks (the exhaustive exercise group). Next, the physiological and psychological outcomes were compared with the regular exercise and sedentary groups. Outcome measures included growth, glucose tolerance, exercise metabolism profiles, cytokine levels, intestinal tight junction gene expression, and psychological behavioral changes. Our results revealed that overtraining negatively affected the physiological and psychological changes in the current model. The exhaustive exercise group exhibited significantly lower endurance performance and imbalanced energy expenditure, causing a decrease in body fat mass and slowing down the growth curve. In addition, the inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, and interleukin-1β) and immune cells (neutrophils and monocytes) were significantly elevated after successive exhaustive exercise interventions. Furthermore, overtraining-induced stress resulted in increased anxiety status and decreased food intake. Our findings reinforce the idea that an imbalance between exercise and recovery can impair health and performance maintenance after overtraining. This study highlights the maladaptation of overtraining and provides an animal model to determine the effectiveness of possible strategies, including nutrition and monitoring, for treatment and prevention of overtraining syndromes in future studies.