Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the present study was to determine whether depression of maximal muscular force and neural drive subsequent to prolonged ( ≥ 60 s) passive muscle stretching is associated with altered corticospinal excitability or intracortical (GABAB-mediated) inhibition.
Methods
Fourteen healthy adult males were tested before and after 5 min (5 × 60-s stretches) of intense, passive static stretching of the plantar flexor muscles. Two protocols (A and B) were conducted in a randomized order. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was delivered to the contralateral motor cortex at rest (Protocol A) and during maximal voluntary contractions (Protocol B). Changes in maximal voluntary isometric torque, voluntary surface electromyographic activity of triceps surae muscles (normalized to M-wave; EMG/M), motor-evoked potentials (MEP), and cortical silent period (cSP; Protocol B) in soleus elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation were examined 10 min after stretch.
Results
In both protocols A and B, significant decreases were observed immediately after stretching in maximal voluntary plantar flexion torque ( − 20.1 ± 15.9%, P = 0.004; and − 17.2 ± 13.5%, P = 0.006) and EMG/M ( − 18.0 ± 18.2%, P = 0.023; and − 13.0 ± 9.3%, P = 0.003). Decreases in torque and EMG/M were highly correlated (r = 0.67–0.85, P < 0.05). However, no changes were observed in MEP amplitudes during rest ( + 29.3 ± 50.0%) or maximum voluntary contraction ( + 1.9 ± 16.8%), or in cSP ( + 2.1 ± 15.1%).
Conclusions
Impaired neural drive contributed to the stretch-induced force loss; however, changes in corticospinal excitability and intracortical inhibition could not explain the phenomenon.
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Abbreviations
- CI:
-
Confidence interval
- cSP:
-
Cortical silent period
- EMG:
-
Electromyography
- ICC:
-
Intraclass correlation
- MANOVA:
-
Multivariate analysis of variance
- MEP:
-
Motor-evoked potential
- MG:
-
Medial gastrocnemius
- MGRMS :
-
Medial gastrocnemius root-mean square
- M max :
-
Maximal motor-wave
- MSO:
-
Maximum stimulator output
- MVC:
-
Maximal voluntary contraction
- RMS:
-
Root-mean square
- RMT:
-
Resting motor threshold
- SOL:
-
Soleus
- SOLRMS :
-
Soleus root-mean square
- TA:
-
Tibialis anterior
- TARMS :
-
Tibialis anterior root-mean square
- TMS:
-
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
- T peak :
-
Peak torque
- TS:
-
Triceps surae
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TSP, AJB, and GST conceived and designed the research. TSP and BJCK conducted experiments. TSP analyzed data. TSP and AJB wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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Communicated by Olivier Seynnes.
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Pulverenti, T.S., Trajano, G.S., Kirk, B.J.C. et al. The loss of muscle force production after muscle stretching is not accompanied by altered corticospinal excitability. Eur J Appl Physiol 119, 2287–2299 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04212-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04212-8