Effect of Exercise Order of Resistance Training on Strength Performance and Indices of Muscle Damage in Young Active Girls

BACKGROUND: Exercise order is one of the key variables in designing resistance training (RT) that may affect physiological and functional muscle characteristics. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of exercise order of RT on muscle strength, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase (CK) enzymes as indices of muscle damage in active young girls. PATIENTS AND METHODS: For this purpose, 24 active girls aged 20 - 30 years voluntarily participated in six weeks RT. The subjects were randomly assigned into three groups of large to small muscle group (SLM, n = 8), large to small group (LSM, n = 8) and control group (Co, n = 8). The RT performed in bench press, lat pull down, triceps with machine and biceps with barbell. Before and after RT, blood sample was collected to measure the level of LDH and CK enzymes activity. RESULTS: The result of analysis indicated that RT significantly increased the level of LDH enzymes in all three groups (P < 0.05). In addition, the result showed that six weeks of RT did not cause any significant change in CK (P > 0.05). However, there is no significant difference between SLM, LSM and control in CK and LDH after six weeks RT. CONCLUSIONS: Both RT methods cause the same improvement on muscle strength and performance. Also muscle damage indices did not show sensitivity to the exercise order. Therefore, resistance training may be designed regardless of effect of exercise order on muscle damage.