2.6. Subjective Pain Assessments
muscle soreness, affective pain, pain
CONTRACTIONS
Perceived muscle soreness during muscle function assessments was determined during the exercise trial and recovery (24, 48 and 72 h post exercise) days. Participants rated the severity of soreness of the exercising leg during the first maximal eccentric and isometric contractions on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 (1 = no soreness; 5 = worse possible pain).The muscle soreness of the resting eccentrically exercised leg was assessed with the SF-MPQ before the bench-stepping exercise and at selected post-exercise timepoints (0, 24, 48 and 72 h post exercise). The questionnaire comprised 15 pain-related adjectives, and participants rated each adjective on scale of 0 (none) to 3 (severe). The sum from each adjective score was calculated to give the total pain measure. The pain descriptors in the SF-MPQ included 4 affective pain and 11 sensory pain adjectives, allowing for the specific assessment at these 2 pain dimensions. In addition, the SF-MPQ included a VAS scale anchored by descriptors “no pain” and “worse possible pain” at the opposite ends of the 10 cm scale to assess average pain experienced by participants.