The Association Between Lower Extremity Muscle Mass and Muscle Tissue Loading
Undergraduates: Amelia Bruce, Barnett Frank
Faculty Advisor: Darin Padua
Department: Exercise & Sport Science
Context: During exercise participation muscle mass is leveraged to control human motion.
Objective: To investigate the relationship between lower extremity muscle mass and creatine kinase release during controlled exercise.
Setting: Research Laboratory
Subjects: 43 physically active, healthy, college-aged field or court sport female athletes.
Methods: Participants underwent a baseline dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan to obtain body composition information. Blood samples were collected pre and post-exercise. During exercise participants completed 5 sets of a 5-minute graded treadmill run at 110-120% of their ventilatory threshold, followed by 10 jump-landing box jumps off a 30-cm box.
Results: A significant positive relationship was observed between creatine kinase response to exercise and lower extremity lean mass normalized to body mass
Conclusion: It appears individuals with greater relative muscle mass availability leverage a greater proportion of their muscle tissue volume during exercise compared to individuals with less muscle mass per unit body mass. These results suggest that individuals with greater relative muscle mass may be more mechanically efficient using metabolically active tissue to do work during exercise compared to individuals with less relative muscle tissue volumes.