Optimisation of Eccentric Exercises

Regular physical activity is an important public health lever and is recognised as an alternative in the management of certain long-term conditions. To achieve beneficial effects on the body, exercise recommendations are based on several parameters such as duration, intensity and continuous or intermittent nature of the activity. However, the mode of muscle contraction during exercise is generally little considered or poorly defined in these recommendations, which can lead to prescribing errors. In particular, the eccentric contraction modality, which can be found in actions designed to slow down movement (e.g. walking downhill), represents an interesting strategy, but its prescription modalities are still poorly understood.

The beneficial effects of physical activity are based in part on the release of molecules (myokines) by the skeletal muscles during exercise, which improve the functioning of the body. However, the effect of downhill walking on the release of myokines by the muscle has been little studied. The lack of knowledge of this effect is therefore an obstacle to the use of this exercise modality to try to optimise physical activity recommendations for health or performance improvement.

The aim of this study is therefore to better understand how downhill walking (eccentric muscle contraction) affects the production of molecules by muscles (myokines) during exercise.