Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) Responders: Can We Predict Who They Are?

Background: Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is an acute muscle pain condition occurring after eccentric muscular activity. Certain individuals experience greater pain than others.

Aim: To investigate whether individual pain sensitivity and psychological variables predict DOMS.

Methods: Thirty-two healthy participants completed pain-related psychological questionnaires and quantitative sensory testing (QST) before a DOMS protocol for the upper extremity was carried out. 24h later, participants completed the DOMS-related interference questionnaire and then QST was reapplied. In order to compare QST parameters and psychological variables between those developing DOMS and those who did not, independent sample t-tests were conducted. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the predictive role of QST and psychological variables on DOMS intensity.

Results: Fifty-three percent of participants developed DOMS and were classified as DOMS responders. The DOMS responders had higher trait anxiety (p=0.010), depression (p=0.025), and stress (p=0.034) scores, compared to those who did not develop DOMS. Trait anxiety predicted the intensity of DOMS (r=0.63, P0.000). Additionally, those who developed DOMS demonstrated a higher systemic pain sensitivity at baseline, expressed by a lower pressure pain threshold in the muscle that was exercised and in a remote muscle, and by a lower pain inhibition efficiency (P0.02). No correlation was found between the level of pain sensitivity at baseline and the intensity of DOMS.

Discussion: Participants with lower mechanical pain thresholds and less efficient inhibitory pain modulation developed DOMS. However, only the baseline psychological factors were predictive of DOMS intensity.