IMPACT OF EXERCISE-INDUCED MUSCLE DAMAGE ON PERFORMANCE TEST OUTCOMES IN ELITE FEMALE BASKETBALL PLAYERS

The purpose of this study was 2-fold: first, to examine the impact of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) on physical fitness qualities after a basketball-specific training session; second, to determine the reproducibility of the sport-specific performance measures in elite female basketball players. Ten elite female basketball players (age 25.6 +/- 4.5 years; height 1.8 +/- 0.7 m; and body mass 76.7 +/- 8.3 kg) undertook a 90-minute training session involving repeated jumping, sprinting, and game-simulated training. Indirect muscle damage markers (i. e., countermovement jump, delayed onset of muscle soreness [DOMS], and creatine kinase [CK]) and sport-specific performances (i.e., change-of-direction [COD] test and suicide test [ST]) were measured before and 24 hours after training. These measures were also collected 1 week after training to determine the reproducibility of the basketball-specific performance measures. A significant reduction in lower-body power (-3.5 +/- 3.6%; p < 0.05), while a significant increase in DOMS (46.7 +/- 26.3%; p < 0.05) and CK (57.6 +/- 23.1%; p < 0.05) was observed 24 hours after exercise. The ST was also significantly increased (2.1 +/- 1.8%; p < 0.05), although no difference was observed for COD (0.1 +/- 2.0%; p > 0.05). The intraclass correlation coefficient and coefficient of variation for the COD and ST were 0.81 and 0.90, respectively, and 1.9 and 1.5%, respectively. In conclusion, appropriate recovery should be considered the day after basketball-specific training sessions in elite basketball players. Furthermore, this study showed the usability of performance measures to detect changes during periods of EIMD, with acceptable reproducibility and minimal measurement error.