Future directions and clinical implications
DOMS, Burns, fatigue, pain, hamstring injury
The results of this study are of potential clinical importance. Increasing emphasis has been placed upon the need for prognostic indicators of lower limb recovery or pain persistence (Sánchez Romero et al., This study has several strengths. A control group (concentric exercise) was employed, mitigating the potential confounding effects of repetition and fatigue on corticomotor outcomes. Assessors were also blinded to minimize measurement bias. However, this study is not without limitations. The results of this study are based on an experimental pain model (DOMS) that mimics signs and symptoms associated with hamstring injury (pain on palpation and loss of function). Whether our results can be translated to clinical hamstring pain requires further investigation. Another potential limitation of this study is that outcome measures were not followed‐up beyond the resolution of pain. Previous studies have shown maintenance of corticomotor adaptations following experimentally‐induced pain in the upper limb (Burns et al., Finally, it is important to acknowledge that the reliability of TMS mapping requires further exploration. Although the technique employed has demonstrated excellent within‐ and between‐session reliability when assessing corticomotor representations of upper limb (Cavaleri et al., 2018, 2019, 