Abstract
Purpose
This study examined eccentric-induced fatigue effects on knee flexor (KF) neuromuscular function and on knee position sense. This design was repeated across two experimental sessions performed 1 week apart to investigate potential repeated bout effects.
Methods
Sixteen participants performed two submaximal bouts of KF unilateral eccentric contractions until reaching a 20% decrease in maximal voluntary isometric contraction force. Knee position sense was evaluated with position-matching tasks in seated and prone positions at 40° and 70° of knee flexion so that KF were either antagonistic or agonistic during the positioning movement. The twitch interpolation technique was used to assess KF neuromuscular fatigue. Perceived muscle soreness was also assessed. Measurements were performed before, immediately (POST) and 24 h after (POST24) each eccentric bout.
Results
No repeated bout effect on neuromuscular function and proprioceptive parameters was observed. At POST, central and peripheral factors contributed to the force decrement as shown by significant decreases in voluntary activation level (− 3.8 ± 4.8%, p < 0.01) and potentiated doublet torque at 100 Hz (− 10 ± 15.8%, p < 0.01). At this time point, position-matching errors significantly increased by 1.7 ± 1.9° in seated position at 40° (p < 0.01). At POST24, in presence of muscle soreness (p < 0.05), although KF neuromuscular function had recovered, position-matching errors increased by 0.6 ± 2.6° in prone position at 40° (p < 0.01).
Conclusion
These results provide evidence that eccentric-induced position sense alterations may arise from central and/or peripheral mechanisms depending on the testing position.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- BF:
-
Biceps femoris
- CAR:
-
Central activation ratio
- Dtsup :
-
Superimposed doublet torque at 100 Hz
- Dt10Hz :
-
Potentiated doublet amplitude at 10 Hz
- Dt100Hz :
-
Potentiated doublet torque at 100 Hz
- ECC1:
-
First bout of submaximal eccentric contractions
- ECC2:
-
Second bout of submaximal eccentric contractions
- JPM:
-
Joint position-matching
- JPMS40 :
-
Joint position-matching in seated position at 40° of knee flexion
- JPMS70 :
-
Joint position-matching in seated position at 70° of knee flexion
- JPMP40 :
-
Joint position-matching in prone position at 40° of knee flexion
- JPMP70 :
-
Joint position-matching in prone position at 70° of knee flexion
- KF:
-
Knee flexors
- MVIC:
-
Maximal voluntary isometric contraction
- M-wave:
-
Maximal compound muscle action potentials
- RMS:
-
Root mean square
- Twpot :
-
Potentiated single twitch
- VA:
-
Voluntary activation level
- η 2 p :
-
Partial eta-squared
- 1RM ECC:
-
Eccentric unilateral 1 repetition maximum
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to sincerely thank Nicolas Reneaud and Amyn Jaafar for their precious help regarding the development of the custom-made MatLaB algorithm to automatically compute knee angles. The authors would also like to thank participants for their voluntary participation and for their commitment.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. FDS, BC, and JG conducted the experiments. FDS, FM and SSC analyzed data. FDS, FM and SSC wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the writing and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Approval was obtained from national Ethics Committee (Protection Committee of People for Biomedical Research Southeast III, France; Authorization Number 2020-A02811-38). This study was conducted in accordance with the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Communicated by Toshio Moritani.
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Da Silva, F., Monjo, F., Gioda, J. et al. Knee position sense and knee flexor neuromuscular function are similarly altered after two submaximal eccentric bouts. Eur J Appl Physiol 123, 311–323 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-05063-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-05063-6