The Effects of NRG InterX 5000 ® Therapy on Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness: Comparisons with Standard Treatment Modalities

Investigators: Stephen F. Crouse, Ph.D., Danny Kniffin, M.S., Karl Kapchinski, M.S., Bob Calvin, M.S., Matt Key, L.P.T., John S Green, Ph.D.

Funded by the Neuro Research Group

Purpose:

To compare two standard treatment modalities with the effectiveness of NRG InterX 5000 ® treatment to: 1) reduce the symptoms of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and2) restore muscle function, power, and working capacity after DOMS.

Methods:

In brief, one hundred and twenty healthy, physically active men and women will be recruited from the Texas A&M University community and randomly assigned to one of 4 treatment groups, 30 subjects per group balanced for men and women: 1) InterX® 5000, 2) Ice, 3) Electrical Stimulation (Richmar Theratouch ® 4.7), and 4) SHAM. Each subject will complete a leg exercise protocol designed to produce DOMS as follows. Subjects will first complete a 15-20 minute dynamic warm-up consisting of whole body movements, dynamic muscle stretching exercises, stepping over an under a standard track hurdle, core body muscle exercise, and static muscle stretching. This warm-up will immediately be followed by step exercise preformed on a 16 inch tall step-box until voluntary exhaustion with 20% of the subject’s body weight added in the form of a weight vest. After exercise, treatments will be one of the following (randomly assigned): 1) InterX® 5000, 15 minutes; 2) ice, 15 minutes; 3) Richmar Theratouch ® electro-stim, 15 minutes; Sham, 15 minutes. Treatments will be repeated each day of isokinetic testing. A total of 7 Isokinetic exercise bouts on a BIODEX isokinetic muscle testing system will be performed by each of the 120 subjects:

  • At least 1-2 days before any experimental testing, each of the 120 subjects will report for a familiarization exercise session on the BIODEX
  • The day of and just before the DOMS exercise bout for baseline measurements
  • The day of and just after the DOMS exercise bout
  • Two and four, seven and 14 days after DOMS exercise

In conjunction with the isokinetic measures, subjective muscular pain assessments will be administered using a validated 10-point subjective pain scale. Also, muscle tenderness to touch will be assessed by trained investigators. Once the data have been collected, statistical analyses of all data will be completed to compare the ice, InterX 5000 ®, Theratouch ®, and SHAM therapies.