Gender Differences in Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage

Strenuous, unaccustomed exercise results in damage to muscle fibers as observed through morphological analysis of muscle tissue in both human and rodent models. Other manifestations of damage include prolonged losses in muscle strength, 284increased activity of muscle enzymes in the blood, and delayed onset muscle soreness. ^{1 - 4} Damage to skeletal muscle can result in the efflux of several intramuscular enzymes and proteins, e.g., creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and myoglobin, into the blood, but the most commonly measured is creatine kinase. ^{5 - 6}