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Lower fatigability of locomotor than non-locomotor muscles in endurance runners

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Abstract

Knee extensor and elbow flexor muscles have been demonstrated to have similar fatigability, i.e. time to task failure at submaximal force level, in healthy non-trained individuals. This experiment investigated if continuative endurance training can influence the fatigability of these two muscle groups in amateur runners. Surface electromyography was used to assess fatigability in twelve amateur runners. Participants were requested to sustain for 30 s the 70 % of their maximum voluntary contraction of knee extensor and elbow flexor muscles. During contractions, electromyographic signals were recorded, respectively, from vastus lateralis and biceps brachii muscles with linear array of eight electrodes. Muscle fiber conduction velocity (CV), mean power spectral frequency (MNF), and fractal dimension (FD) of electromyographic signals were calculated. During the sustained contraction vastus lateralis muscle showed smaller decrease of CV (p = 0.006), MNF (p = 0.001), and FD (p = 0.001) than biceps brachii muscle. The lower fatigability found in knee extensors than in elbow flexors suggests that the physiological adaptation promoted by the endurance training was specific to the musculature involved in the training (i.e. the lower limbs).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Valentina Bellini, Valeria Rosso, and Emma Colamarino for their valuable help in data collection. The help of Corrado Cescon for the signal processing was much appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CeRiSM Research Center “Sport, Mountain, and Health”, Via del Ben 5/b, 38068, Rovereto, TN, Italy

    Gennaro Boccia & Federico Schena

  2. Motor Science Research Center, School of Exercise and Sport Sciences, SUISM, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 12, Piazza Bernini, 10143, Turin, Italy

    Gennaro Boccia, Davide Dardanello & Alberto Rainoldi

  3. School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Via Casorati 43, 37137, Verona, Italy

    Cantor Tarperi, Luca Festa & Federico Schena

  4. Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Antonio La Torre

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  1. Gennaro Boccia
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  2. Davide Dardanello
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Correspondence to Gennaro Boccia.

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The study was approved by the local ethical committee (Department of Neurological, Neuropsychological, Morphological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona) and performed in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration.

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All participants provided their written informed consent before participation in the experiments.

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Boccia, G., Dardanello, D., Tarperi, C. et al. Lower fatigability of locomotor than non-locomotor muscles in endurance runners. Sport Sci Health 12, 369–375 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-016-0297-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-016-0297-6

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