There is a paucity of studies investigating exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) in females and only one in response to dance-type exercise. This study aimed to firstly elucidate the physiological profile of EIMD following a dance-specific protocol, and second to compare the magnitude of damage to that experienced following a sport-specific protocol in physically active females.

Twenty nine female recreational dancers from a University dance team volunteered to take part in the study. A 3-day food diary and activity log completed prior to testing determined that there were no differences in physical activity levels or energy and macronutrient intakes between participants. Subjects were asked to replicate their reported diets as closely as possible throughout the testing period. A menstrual cycle questionnaire was also completed in order to determine menstrual cycle phase; all testing took place during the early/mid luteal phase.

Participants were randomly assigned to two exercise groups designed to induce EIMD; either a dance-specific protocol (DPFT) or a sport-specific repeated sprint protocol (SSRS). Participants completed the DPFT (n=15) or SSRS (n=14) and a battery of commonly used muscle damage indices were measured pre, immediately post and 24-, 48-, and 72 h post muscle damage. These were; delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), limb girth, countermovement jump height (CMJ), reactive strength index (RSI), maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVC) sprint performance, and total creatine kinase (CK) activity. Participants were tested at the same time on subsequent days (± 1 h) to account for diurnal variation. Participants were asked to avoid strenuous exercise, alcohol, caffeine, nutritional supplements and any anti-inflammatory drugs or alternative treatments for the duration of the study.

Statistical software (IBM SPSS v21, IBM, USA) was used for inferential analysis and significance was accepted at the P < .05 a priori. Mauchley's test assessed the sphericity of the data and where appropriate, violations were corrected using the Greenhouse-Geisser. To explore our first objective, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures (group, 1; time, 5) was performed on all variables in order to analyse the muscle damage response to the DPFT. For the second aim a two-way ANOVA with repeated measures (group, 2; time, 5) was used for all variables to allow for comparison of the muscle damage response between the DPFT and the SSRS. Where appropriate LSD post-hoc analysis was performed.

Inclusion Criteria:

• physically active
• at least 3 years experience in dance training

Exclusion Criteria:

• presence of any medical or physical conditions, either chronic or sustained in the last 3 months which would make participation difficult or harmful to the participant
• eg. history of cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders