The more you do the same workout, the less sore and swollen your muscles get.
Scientific Claim
Repeated exposure to resistance training induces the repeated bout effect, leading to reduced muscle damage, inflammation, and swelling over time.
Original Statement
“We have evidence that as you continue training with a program for weeks on end, your body produces a range of adaptations that reduce the muscle damage, fatigue, and muscle swelling response you experience from training.”
Context Details
Domain
exercise
Population
human
Subject
repeated resistance training exposure
Action
induces
Target
the repeated bout effect, reducing muscle damage, fatigue, and swelling
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (3)
Reduced muscle lengthening during eccentric contractions as a mechanism underpinning the repeated-bout effect.
After doing the same tough arm exercise twice, four weeks apart, the participants’ muscles got less damaged the second time because they didn’t stretch as much during the movement, and they felt less sore and swollen.
When muscles are stressed twice, the body learns to calm down the inflammation response the second time — this study proved it by showing a key inflammation switch gets turned down after the second workout.
Technical explanation
This paper directly demonstrates that repeated eccentric exercise reduces inflammation by blunting NF-κB activation — a key inflammatory pathway — providing strong mechanistic support for the assertion that repeated exposure reduces inflammation and muscle damage.
This study found the opposite: after doing the same hard exercise twice, the body actually sent MORE immune cells to the muscle the second time — meaning inflammation didn’t go down, it got worse, which goes against the idea that muscles get better at handling stress.
Technical explanation
This study directly contradicts the assertion by finding that inflammation is NOT reduced after repeated bouts of damaging exercise — instead, immune cell infiltration increased, suggesting sensitization rather than protection, challenging the core claim of reduced inflammation.
Contradicting (2)
Even after doing the same bike workout twice, the harder version still made muscles way more sore and inflamed — meaning repeating workouts doesn’t always protect you if you go too hard.
Technical explanation
While not fully contradicting RBE, this paper shows that high-intensity exercise causes greater DOMS and inflammation even after repeated bouts, suggesting that the protective effect is not universal and can be overridden by intensity — undermining the assertion’s generalizability.
Scientists found a way to make muscles NOT get better at handling repeated stress — so even after doing the same workout twice, the muscles still got just as damaged. This breaks the rule that repeated workouts always protect you.
Technical explanation
This study directly challenges the RBE by showing that an alternating exercise protocol successfully eliminated the expected reduction in muscle damage — proving that RBE is not inevitable and can be removed, contradicting the assertion that repeated exposure always leads to protection.