The research was conducted on 24 healthy male subjects between the age of 20 and 30, who has not practiced any sports before, who has not taken part in any strength exercises in the past 3 months, and who does not smoke and use any medicine constantly such as antidepressants and diuretics which cause dehydration. No subjects below 18 were included in the study. The subjects were divided into two groups: the experiment group, who drink sports drink (n = 12), and the control group who drink water (n = 12) during the exercise.
In this study, the subjects were kept in sauna to enable dehydration, then they were given 30 minutes eccentric exercise training, and the effects of sports drinks on the Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) symptoms which were expected to develop were searched.
Ideal temperature in the sauna was kept between 90 and 95 degrees and all the subjects went into the sauna at this heat. The subjects in the sauna perspired in a position sitting on the middle bench and the subjects were not asked to make any physical activity in the sauna cabin.
Before and after the sauna, the weights of the subjects were controlled and the subjects who lost 2% of their weight were considered as dehydrated and they were given eccentric exercise. The control group members participated in the study by knowing that they were the control group and they were informed that they would have been given water as a liquid throughout the study. The subjects in the experiment group took only sports drink during the study. Before the sauna, for all the subjects, anthropometric measurements were made, arterial blood pressures were found, and in addition their blood samples were collected. The weights of all the subjects were measured with a digital weighting machine (± 50 gr.) in the morning and their heights were also measured in the morning. Blood samples were taken by sterilised green topped injector, as 5 ml, from their antecubital veins. The control group made eccentric exercise after sauna and they were given only water at that stage. After the exercise, the experiment group was given a sports drink which is sold in the market.
In that study, an isotonic sports drink, whose bottle is 500 ml. and which is largely consumed in the market was used. In that sports drink, there is no caffeine. In an amount of 500 ml of the sport drink, there is 120 kcal energy, 0 gr. protein, 0 gr. fat, 28 gr. carbohydrate, 260 mgr. sodium, and 30,5 mgr. potassium.
The exercise was realised for a total of 30 minutes in the step machine where, at a 90 degrees movement width, the knee joint would come to 90 degrees of flexion from 180 degrees of full extension. During the exercise, the Polar F4 Hearth Rate Monitor Watch, with a target pulse beep and visual alert, was placed on the arms of the subjects and the subjects were ensured to finalise the first 15 minutes of the exercise at an upper pulse limit of 130, and the second 15 minutes with an upper pulse limit of 150. Thus, all the subjects were ensured to conduct the exercises at the same pulse levels. Before starting with the exercise, the subjects were warmed up for 3 minutes in the bicycle ergo meter without applying any resistance and then they were started with the exercise.
During the exercise, to measure the pulse OwnCal® Polar F4 Hearth Rate Monitor Watch and was used. The step machine was the RUNMILL TWIST & STEP.
The subjects were given a total of 750 ml. water or sports drink: For the first time 250 ml. during the 10-15 minutes of resting period right after the sauna; and 250 ml. in each 15 minutes during the exercise. Blood pressures of the subjects were also checked once in 15 minutes. 5 ml. venous blood samples were collected right after the exercise and after 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours. The collected blood samples were stored in special biochemistry tubes; paying attention to the cold chain, the plasmas obtained after applying centrifuge were sent to a biochemistry centre; the samples were analysed there and the results obtained were carefully noted according to the dates.
The data analysis was made with SPSS 11.5 software. Data were expressed as ± standard deviation. For the comparison of the repeated LDH measurements, the Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance was used. To examine the sources of differences due to time in the LDH measurements, Bonferroni multiple comparison test was used.
In our study, 24 healthy male individuals were included. Special attention was given to the point that none of the subjects had been involved in sports professionally. The subjects were divided into two groups (control and experiment) with a draw.
The average age of the experiment group and control group was found as 23.6 and 24.8 respectively. The age range of the subjects in the experiment group was changing between 20 and 30, and that of the control group was changing between 21 and 29. No statistically significant difference between the age status of the groups was seen. This is demonstrated in the Table 1.1.
Table 1.1: Age status of the control and experiment groups. View Table 1.1
The average tallness of the experiment group was found as 174.5 cm and that of the control group was found as 173 cm. The tallness of the subjects in the experiment group ranged between 168 and 181 cm, and that of the control group subjects ranged between 167 and 181 cm. No statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of tallness was seen. This is demonstrated in the Table 1.2.
Table 1.2: The tallness status of the experiment and control groups. View Table 1.2
The weight of the experiment group, which was 7.82 kg before the sauna, decreased to 70.32 after the sauna and that of the control group, which was 70.98 before the sauna, decreased to 69.33 after the sauna. This is demonstrated in the Table 1.3.
Table 1.3: Weight status of the control and experiment groups before and after the sauna. View Table 1.3
When the weight loss of the experiment and the control groups are considered, it is seen that the subjects in both groups had a weight loss of 2%. This means that all the subjects both in the experiment group and in the control group became dehydrated.
Significant increase was observed in the CK measurements checked in the blood samples taken before the exercise, right after the exercise and at the 24th, 48th, 72nd and 96th hours. When this significant increase is statistically evaluated due to time, without considering the effect of the experiment and control groups, significant difference (p < 0.001) was observed between the CK measurements (conducted after the 24th, 48th, 72nd and 96th hours). This is shown in the Table 2.1.
Table 2.1: CK status of the experiment and control groups before and after the exercise. View Table 2.1
The CK measurements conducted due to time in the experiment group showed significance difference (p < 0.001). The difference between the CK measurements before the exercise and those for all following times was significant. In the CK measurements, increase until the 48th hour and after that linear decrease was observed. In addition, the difference between the measurements after the exercise and those at the 24th, 48th and 72nd hours was found significant. The difference between the CK measurements of 24th hour and that of 48th hour was also significant. The difference between the CK measurements of 96th and 72nd hour and the CK measurements of the 48th jour was also statistically significant. The CK measurement of the 48th hour was higher compared to the other two measurement times. These findings has been consistently reported in the references 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. Finally, the difference between the CK measurements of 72nd and 96th hours was also found significant and this was shown in the Table 2.2.
Table 2.2: CK measurements conducted due to time in the experiment group. View Table 2.2
The CK measurements conducted due to time in the control group showed significant difference (p < 0.001). The difference between the measurements before the exercise and those for all following measurement times was significant. In the CK measurements, increase until the 48th hour and decrease after that was observed. In addition, the difference between the measurements after the exercise and those at the 24th and 48th hours was also significant. The CK measurements of the 24th hour were significantly lower than these two measurement times. The difference between the CK measurements of the 48th hour and those of the 96th hour was also statistically significant. The CK measurement of the 96th hour was found significantly lower than that of the 48th hour and this is shown in the Table 2.3.
Table 2.3: CK measurements conducted due to time in the control group. View Table 2.3
In the Table 2.4., the illustrative statistics regarding the percentage change of the CK levels of 48th and 72nd hours compared to those before the exercise are given. Both percentage change measurements are found similar for the experiment and control group.
Table 2.4: CK changes between the groups before the exercise and at the 48th and 72nd hours. View Table 2.4
Exercise-induced muscle soreness can be classified as either acute onset or delayed onset. Acute onset muscle soreness occurs during exercise and may lastup to 4 to 6 hours before subsiding [1-7]. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) has onset 8 to 24 hours postexercise, with soreness peaking 24 to 48 hours postexercise [8-13]. The etiology of DOMS has been the topic of numerous studies, from which several theories have evolved Despite differences in theories, the following factors have been documented: 1. Strenuous activity especially eccentric exercise causes injury or traumato the muscle, its musculotendinous junction, or both [8-11,14,15]. 2. Injury and/or trauma initiates an inflammatory response resulting in muscles feeling painful and swollen 3. Pain occurrence is delayed approximately8 hours postactivity and graduallyincreases, peaking 24 to 48 hours postexercise before gradually subsiding to preexercise levels 4. Trauma results in significantly increasedlevels of muscle proteins and other breakdown products of muscle and collagen in the blood and/or urine (like; creatine kinase, lactat dehydrogenase,...) [16-18].
The signs and symptoms of DOMS are attributed to subcellular alterations of the sarcolemma, or phospholipid membrane, as a result of skeletal muscle microdamage [19-22]. The sarcolemma loses its ability to retain potassium, creatine kinase, and myoglobin, which are released into the extracellular fluid, plasma, and urine Efflux of intramuscular ions and proteins leads to increased osmolarity of the extracellular fluid and fluid shifts out of the cell [3,7,10,16,23-26].
During dehydration, plasma hyperosmolarity is exacerbated as water is redistributed from the intracellular to the extracellular compartments of skeletal muscle in an attempt to maintain normal blood osmolarity. Muscle proteins affected most by dehydration are those involved in electrolyte distribution across the sarcolemma (ie, sodium-potassium and calcium adenosine triphosphatases), calcium release and reuptake by the sarcoplasmic reticulum, and components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain [17,27-30]. Cardiovascular compensatory mechanisms for thermoregulatory blood pooling in the skin determine tolerance to dehydration and exercise in the heat. Exercise performance decreases as less blood is available for perfusion of active skeletal muscle. Blood flow to exercising muscles is significantly reduced with dehydration due to reductions in blood pressure and perfusion pressure [1-6,23,31,32].
Structural changes occurred, evidenced by the significant increases in serum CK levels over time. The elevated levels of creatine kinase appear to be quantitative markers of muscle damage. Others have shown that muscle damage exists immediately after exercise, but several hours may pass before pain is felt, anddamage continues to increase for about 4 hours. Strength decreases result because of the reluctance to use sore muscles and from the loss of inherent force-producing capacity with in the muscle [9,10,16,27].
The mechanisms producing delayed muscle soreness are vaguely understood,making information concerning prevention and treatment scarce. Previous studies have tried to isolatespecific mechanisms while other studies have attempted to prevent and treat the symptoms [7,22,26,30,31]. We attempted to prevent and treat muscular soreness through the use of sport drinks at dehydrate persons.
As a result of this study, it is found that it does not affect the CK values, which is among the biochemical parameter of DOMS, if the dehydrated individuals, who make eccentric exercise, intake water or sports drinks during the exercise. As a result of the study, it was found that whether the dehydrated individuals making eccentric exercise take water or sports drink during the exercise did not create any difference on CK (Creatinine Kinase), which are among the biochemical parameters of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).