The present study aimed to compare quadriceps femoris muscle strength and fatigue between obese (grade II and III) and nonobese adults. Ten obese (mean age: 25 years; mean BMI: 41 kg/m(2)) and ten lean (mean age: 27 years; mean BMI: 23 kg/m(2)) men were tested. Quadriceps muscle fatigue was quantified as the (percent) torque loss during a voluntary isokinetic (50 maximal contractions at 180 degrees /s) and an electrostimulated (40 Hz) isometric protocol (5 min, 10% of the maximal torque). Maximal voluntary isometric and isokinetic torque and power were also measured. Voluntary torque loss was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in obese (-63.5%) than in lean subjects (-50.6%). Stimulated torque decreased significantly (P < 0.05) but equally in the two subject groups. Obese subjects displayed higher absolute (+20%; P < 0.01) but lower relative (i.e., normalized to body mass) (-32%; P < 0.001) muscle torque and power than their lean counterparts. Obese individuals demonstrated lower fatigue resistance during voluntary but not during stimulated knee extensions compared to their nonobese counterparts. Peripheral mechanisms of muscle fatigue -- at least those associated to the present stimulated test -- were not influenced by obesity. The observed quadriceps muscle function impairments (voluntary fatigue and relative strength) probably contribute to the reduced functional capacity of obese subjects during daily living activities.

NA.Comparison between voluntary and stimulated contractions of the quadriceps femoris for growth hormone response and muscle damage. J Appl Physiol 104: 75-81, 2008. First published November 1, 2007 doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00335.2007.-This study aimed to compare voluntary and stimulated exercise for changes in muscle strength, growth hormone (GH), blood lactate, and markers of muscle damage. Nine healthy men had two leg press exercise bouts separated by 2 wk. In the first bout, the quadriceps muscles were stimulated by biphasic rectangular pulses (75 Hz, duration 400 s, on-off ratio 6.25-20 s) with current amplitude being consistently increased throughout 40 contractions at maximal tolerable level. In the second bout, 40 voluntary isometric contractions were performed at the same leg press force output as the first bout. Maximal voluntary isometric strength was measured before and after the bouts, and serum GH and blood lactate concentrations were measured before, during, and after exercise. Serum creatine kinase (CK) activity and muscle soreness were assessed before, immediately after, and 24, 48, and 72 h after exercise. Maximal voluntary strength decreased significantly (P Ͻ 0.05) after both bouts, but the magnitude of the decrease was significantly (P Ͻ 0.05) greater for the stimulated contractions (Ϫ22%) compared with the voluntary contractions (Ϫ9%). Increases in serum GH and lactate concentrations were significantly (P Ͻ 0.05) larger after the stimulation compared with the voluntary exercise. Increases in serum CK activity and muscle soreness were also significantly (P Ͻ 0.05) greater for the stimulation than voluntary exercise. It was concluded that a single bout of electrical stimulation exercise resulted in greater GH response and muscle damage than voluntary exercise. neuromuscular electrical stimulation; isometric strength; blood lactate; creatine kinase; muscle soreness IN RECENT YEARS, THE ACUTE effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on neuromuscular and metabolic responses have received attention (16,28,33,37,39). It has been reported in several studies that electrically evoked contractions result in greater strength loss and greater increases in oxygen consumption and blood lactate compared with voluntary contractions at the same intensity (16,28,33,37,39). It has been speculated that the specific recruitment pattern of motor units during NMES is mainly attributed to the phenomena (16,28,37,39). Indeed, it is documented that the recruitment of motor units during stimulated contractions is different from voluntary contraction such that fast-twitch fibers could be activated at relatively low force levels (i.e., random/nonselective motor unit recruitment) (10,17,20,30).It is known that acute voluntary resistance exercise increases growth hormone (GH) secretion (for review see 22); however, limited information is available for acute GH responses to NMES. To the best of our knowledge, only two studies have reported GH responses to NMES. Greisen et al. (11) showed a significant increa...

Collectively, our data demonstrate higher sensory and supramotor excitability to surface ES in female subjects and provide further evidence for a neurophysiological explanation for more pronounced pain perception in women. These observations may help clinicians to better understand the sex-specific response to ES and to design more rational stimulation treatments with the ultimate goal of optimizing patient care and safety.

No abstract

This study demonstrates that the strain applied to human muscle fibres during eccentric contractions strongly influences the magnitude of muscle damage in vivo. Achilles tendon compliance decreases the amount of strain, while architectural gear ratio may moderately contribute to attenuating muscle fascicle lengthening and hence muscle damage. Further studies are necessary to explore the impact of various types of task to fully understand the contribution of muscle-tendon interactions during active lengthening to muscle damage.

Electrical stimulation (ES) induces muscle damage that is characterised by histological alterations of muscle fibres and connective tissue, increases in circulating creatine kinase (CK) activity, decreases in muscle strength and development of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Muscle damage is induced not only by eccentric contractions with ES but also by isometric contractions evoked by ES. Muscle damage profile following 40 isometric contractions of the knee extensors is similar between pulsed current (75 Hz, 400 μs) and alternating current (2.5 kHz delivered at 75 Hz, 400 μs) ES for similar force output. When comparing maximal voluntary and ES-evoked (75 Hz, 200 μs) 50 isometric contractions of the elbow flexors, ES results in greater decreases in maximal voluntary contraction strength, increases in plasma CK activity and DOMS. It appears that the magnitude of muscle damage induced by ES-evoked isometric contractions is comparable to that induced by maximal voluntary eccentric contractions, although the volume of affected muscles in ES is not as large as that of eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. It seems likely that the muscle damage in ES is associated with high mechanical stress on the activated muscle fibres due to the specificity of motor unit recruitment (i.e., non-selective, synchronous and spatially fixed manner). The magnitude of muscle damage induced by ES is significantly reduced when the second ES bout is performed 2-4 weeks later. It is possible to attenuate the magnitude of muscle damage by "pre-conditioning" muscles, so that muscle damage should not limit the use of ES in training and rehabilitation.

Whether the involvement of motor units is different between surface neuromuscular electrostimulation and voluntary activation remains an unresolved issue. The aim of this pilot study was to verify if motor unit activation during electrostimulation is nonselective/random (i.e., without obvious sequencing related to fibre type), as recently suggested by Gregory and Bickel [6]. Sixteen healthy men randomly performed submaximal isometric contractions (10-s duration) of the quadriceps femoris muscle at 20, 40 and 60 % of maximal voluntary torque under both stimulated and voluntary conditions. During the contractions, paired stimuli were delivered to the femoral nerve (twitch interpolation technique) and the characteristics of the superimposed doublet were compared between the two conditions. For each torque level, time-to-peak torque was significantly longer (p range = 0.05 - 0.0002) during electrostimulation compared to voluntary contractions. Moreover, time-to-peak torque during voluntary trials decreased significantly when increasing the torque level from 20 to 60 % of maximal voluntary torque (p range = 0.03 - 0.0001), whereas it was unchanged during electrostimulation. In conclusion, over-the-muscle electrostimulation would neither result in motor unit recruitment according to Henneman's size principle nor would it result in a reversal in voluntary recruitment order. During electrostimulation, muscle fibres are activated without obvious sequencing related to fibre type.

To test the hypothesis that hypoxia centrally affects performance independently of afferent feedback and peripheral fatigue, we conducted two experiments under complete vascular occlusion of the exercising muscle under different systemic O(2) environmental conditions. In experiment 1, 12 subjects performed repeated submaximal isometric contractions of the elbow flexor to exhaustion (RCTE) with inspired O(2) fraction fixed at 9% (severe hypoxia, SevHyp), 14% (moderate hypoxia, ModHyp), 21% (normoxia, Norm), or 30% (hyperoxia, Hyper). The number of contractions (performance), muscle (biceps brachii), and prefrontal near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) parameters and high-frequency paired-pulse (PS100) evoked responses to electrical muscle stimulation were monitored. In experiment 2, 10 subjects performed another RCTE in SevHyp and Norm conditions in which the number of contractions, biceps brachii electromyography responses to electrical nerve stimulation (M wave), and transcranial magnetic stimulation responses (motor-evoked potentials, MEP, and cortical silent period, CSP) were recorded. Performance during RCTE was significantly reduced by 10-15% in SevHyp (arterial O(2) saturation, SpO(2) = ∼75%) compared with ModHyp (SpO(2) = ∼90%) or Norm/Hyper (SpO(2) > 97%). Performance reduction in SevHyp occurred despite similar 1) metabolic (muscle NIRS parameters) and functional (changes in PS100 and M wave) muscle states and 2) MEP and CSP responses, suggesting comparable corticospinal excitability and spinal and cortical inhibition between SevHyp and Norm. It is concluded that, in SevHyp, performance and central drive can be altered independently of afferent feedback and peripheral fatigue. It is concluded that submaximal performance in SevHyp is partly reduced by a mechanism related directly to brain oxygenation.