Effect of downhill running on motoneuron pool excitability

The purpose of this study was to compare alterations in motoneuron pool excitability after eccentric-biased (ECC-B) downhill running exercise with non-biased (NO-B) level running exercise. Six male subjects (25-34 yr) participated in the study, which included ECC-B exercise (-10% grade) and NO-B exercise (0% grade) at 50% of maximal O2 uptake for 20 min. The control trial consisted of 20 min of quiet rest with all subjects participating in all conditions (repeated measures). Motoneuron pool excitability was measured by the Hoffman reflex (H-wave), which was expressed as a ratio (H/M ratio) of the maximal electrically stimulated muscle action potential (M-wave). NO-B exercise resulted in a 9.3 +/- 2.7% (SE) reduction in the H/M ratio. ECC-B exercise resulted in a 24.6 +/- 5.7% reduction in the ratio (P less than 0.05 for both). The two exercise treatment conditions were also significantly different from one another (P less than 0.05). Twenty-four-hour postexercise H/M ratios were similar to baseline (P greater than 0.05). Postexercise subjective muscle soreness assessment (DOMS) produced significant increases in DOMS of 36 and 166% immediately and 24 h after exercise, respectively, for the ECC-B trial only (P less than 0.001). The data show that ECC-B exercise results in greater postexercise H/M ratio reductions than NO-B exercise and that H/M ratio changes post-ECC-B exercise are not solely associated with DOMS.