Contralateral protective effect against repeated bout of damaging exercise: A meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

The purpose was to summarize the studies examining the contralateral protective effect on the maximal strength in the subsequent bout of muscle-damaging exercise. The literature search was conducted through CINAHL plus, SportDiscus, and PubMed. Hedge’s g effect size (ES) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed using a random effects model. From 14 papers and 25 ESs, the mean ES for contralateral repeated bout effect (CL-RBE) on 1-, 2-, and 3-day post maximal strength were −0.61 (95% CI = −0.80, −0.41), −0.50 (95% CI = −0.67, −0.33), and −0.74 (95% CI = −1.01, −0.48), respectively. For moderator analyses, the mean ESs were not influenced by type (isometric vs. isokinetic) of strength, but CL-RBE on maximal strength was influenced by duration (≤6 weeks) between bouts. Therefore, the meta-analysis demonstrated that an initial bout of exercise induces the protective effect on contralateral limb muscles regardless of the different type of strength, but can be affected by different duration (≤6 weeks) between exercise bouts.

KEYWORDS:

• Muscle damage
• repeated bout effect
• cross-education effect
• maximal strength

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all authors who took time out of their schedules to help with this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors declare that there was no funding provided for any aspects of this study.