This study investigated whether a warm-up exercise consisting of 100 submaximal concentric contractions would attenuate delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and decreases in muscle strength associated with eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. Ten male students performed two bouts of the elbow flexor exercise consisting of 12 maximal eccentric contractions with a warm-up exercise for one arm (WU) and without warm-up for the other arm (control: CON) in a randomised, counterbalanced order

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... rated by 4 weeks. Muscle temperature of the biceps brachii prior to the exercise was compared between the arms, and muscle activity of the biceps brachii during the exercise was assessed by surface integral electromyogram (iEMG). Changes in visual analog scale for muscle soreness and maximal voluntary isometric contraction strength (MVC) of the elbow flexors were assessed before, immediately after, and every 24 hours for 5 days following exercise, and compared between the WU and CON conditions by a two-way repeated measures ANOVA. The pre-exercise biceps brachii muscle temperature was significantly (p < 0.01) higher for the WU (35.8  0.2ºC) than CON condition (34.4  0.2 ºC), but no significant differences in iEMG and torque produced during exercise were evident between conditions. Changes in muscle soreness and MVC were not significantly different between conditions, although these variables showed significant (p<0.05) changes over time. It was concluded that the warm-up exercise was not effective in mitigating DOMS and loss of muscle strength following maximal eccentric exercise.