If you do hard eccentric exercises like lowering weights slowly once a week for 10 weeks, your muscles stop getting sore and damaged—even though the exercise is tough—because they get used to it.
Scientific Claim
Repeated high-intensity eccentric exercise performed once weekly for 10 weeks eliminates measurable biomarkers of muscle damage (including creatine kinase, delayed onset muscle soreness, and reduced range of motion) in previously untrained men, indicating a robust adaptation to unaccustomed muscle lengthening contractions.
Original Statement
“After the first bout, eccentric exercise induced greater muscle damage compared to concentric exercise; however, during the nine following sessions, this effect progressively diminished, while after the 10th week of training, no alterations in muscle damage biomarkers were observed after either exercise protocol.”
Evidence Quality Assessment
Claim Status
overstated
Study Design Support
Design supports claim
Appropriate Language Strength
probability
Can suggest probability/likelihood
Assessment Explanation
The study shows adaptation occurs, but the claim 'eliminates measurable biomarkers' implies permanence or universality, which is unsupported. Blinding is unknown, and effects are specific to this population and protocol.
More Accurate Statement
“Repeated high-intensity eccentric exercise performed once weekly for 10 weeks is likely to eliminate measurable biomarkers of muscle damage in previously untrained men, suggesting adaptation to unaccustomed muscle lengthening contractions.”
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Eccentric exercise per se does not affect muscle damage biomarkers: early and late phase adaptations
At first, doing intense eccentric exercises hurt and damaged muscles, but after doing them once a week for 10 weeks, the men’s bodies got used to it—and no more pain or damage showed up in tests.