Favorable neuromuscular and cardiovascular responses to 7 days of exercise with an eccentric overload in elderly women.

The metabolic, cardiovascular, and neural cost of eccentric muscle contraction is less than that of concentric contraction, but the strength and neural adaptations in eccentric contractions are significantly greater following resistive exercise. We thus compared the short-term effects of exercise with an eccentric overload (n = 10) with those of exercise with a standard load distribution (n = 10) in ostensibly healthy sedentary elderly women (mean age 71.4). Subjects were tested for concentric and eccentric three-repetition maximum, maximal isokinetic eccentric and concentric and isometric force, and associated electromyographic activity of selected thigh muscles before and after 7 consecutive days of exercise training of the left knee extensors. The exercise program was designed so that the total weight lifted was similar between eccentric overload and standard groups, but the eccentric overload group exercised with an approximately 50% greater eccentric load. Control subjects did not exercise (n = 10). There was a 46% increase in the total weight lifted over 7 days. When all strength measures were combined, the eccentric overload group's strength gains were 1.8-fold greater than those of the standard group, and the cardiovascular stress in terms of heart rate, mean arterial pressure, rate pressure product, and perceived exertion was significantly lower. The increases in muscle strength were achieved by increased muscle activation, but the strength gains were independent of the changes in antagonistic muscle coactivity. Because the strength gains occurred after a short period of exercise at a relatively low intensity and cardiovascular demand, the prescription of exercise with an eccentric overload appears suitable for elders, individuals deconditioned as a result of an injury, and the chronically diseased.