Repetitive uniaxial fatigue testing is introduced to reproduce a similar magnitude of compressive stress to rolling contact during bearing operation, and to investigate the associated microstructural transitions. During the test, the strain per cycle responsible for fatigue damage can be measured. The observed hardness increase suggests that the developed residual stress level is similar to that formed on ball-on-rod bearing testing. The suggested methodology would be helpful in determining the strain responsible for plastic deformation in rolling contact fatigue, as well as for appraising the quality of bearing materials employed for bearing elements.