Fighting pain with pain: Pain modulation through resistance exercise
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Abstract
Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is the inhibitory bodily response to a secondary painful stimulus delivered at a different region of the body. It has been hypothesized that pain during exercise may be one of the mechanisms resulting in exercise induced hypoalgesia (EIH). Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship between CPM and EIH following blood flow restricted (BFR) exercise. During the first visit, participants completed an ischemic pain task which involved occluding blood flow during submaximal isometric hand grip exercise until a pain rating of 7/10 was achieved. Pain pressure threshold (PPT) of the non-exercising biceps brachii was completed pre- and post-exercise. The difference between the two values was used to quantify CPM. During intervention visits, participants complete 4 sets of leg extensions using high load (70% of one repetition maximum [1RM]), low load (30% of 1RM) with BFR, or a control (no load) intervention. PPT was assessed pre-exercise and 0-, 30- and 60-minutes post-exercise. The current sample is small so no statistical analysis were completed, however current trends suggest that CPM may explain initial changes in PPT but may not be related to prolonged increases in PPT. These data suggests that different mechanisms may be associated with acute versus prolonged EIH responses. Results of present investigation suggest that resistance exercise can be an effective pain management modality and that the strongest responses occur immediately after the exercise intervention.
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Research project completed at the Department of Human Performance Studies.

