Postural- and respiratory-related activities of abdominal muscles during post-exercise hyperventilation

Abstract

The present study focuses on the role of superficial abdominal muscles revealed by electromyographic recordings during the maintenance of a bipedal stance perturbed by post-exercise hyperventilation. Twelve healthy subjects performed six 30-s postural tests: one pre-exercise test while breathing quietly, then one test every minute for the 5 min immediately following a maximum-intensity, incremental cycling exercise test. Displacement of the centre of pressure in the sagittal plane was monitored over time. Myoelectric activities of the obliquus externus (OE), obliquus internus (OI) and rectus abdominis (RA) muscles were recorded by surface electromyography (EMG). Metabolic parameters were measured with a portable telemetric device. The change in ventilatory drive induced by exercise was accompanied by a significant increase in both postural sway parameters and EMG activities. For OE and OI, the increased EMG activities were prominent during expiration, whereas OI was silent during inspiration. OE and RA were activated during both expiration and inspiration. It is concluded that the compensation of respiratory disturbances of the erect posture appears to be less effective when minute ventilation increases. The patterns of muscle activity suggest that abdominal muscles are controlled differentially and that their functional coordination is dependent on the respiratory demand.

The fatigue-induced alteration in postural control is larger in hypobaric than in normobaric hypoxia

“…BF and HR are in general higher in brief exposure in HH but reach similar value in NH after 5 to 30 minutes following the onset hypoxia 26 . Hyperventilation represents a significant input for the PC regulation 30 because it is correlated with the velocity of CoP displacement 31 , and a significant elevation of the surface of CoP 32 . It was suggested that immediate effects of hyperventilation led to a respiratory alkalosis, which induce an increase of nervous fibre's excitability and a distortion of the proprioceptors 31,32 .…”

The role of visual feedback in respiratory muscle activation and pulmonary function

“…Furthermore, the abdominal muscles are broadly regarded as the principal muscles of active expiration and contribute to respiration 23 ) . Previous studies have reported respiratory-related abdominal muscles activity thresholds for minute ventilation equal to or greater than before 3 , 23 ) .…”

“…In other words, when the respiratory demand increases, deeper and faster rib cage movements lead to greater postural sway. At this time, abdominal muscles contribute to postural stability and also contribute significantly to breathing 3 ) . During periods of increased IAP such as in the case of breathing, in particular, anterolateral abdominal muscles and the diaphragm work to control changes in IAP 4 ) .…”

“…Thus, the abdominal core muscles modulate changes in IAP, contribute to respiration, and provide trunk stability during changes in posture, walking, talking, and breathing 6 ) . Indeed, abdominal muscles are thought to contribute to respiration, particularly when the oxygen demand is increased by maximal ventilation 3 ) .…”

The use of cognitive mobile games to assess the interaction of cognitive function and breath-hold

“…Conversely, increases in minute ventilation and respiratory rate have been shown to decrease shooting accuracy (Groslambert et al, 1998). The most probable explanation for these findings is related to increased postural sway when ventilation is increased (David et al, 2015), since body sway is a factor that is known to influence shooting performance (Laaksonen et al, 2018). Some authors suggest that breath-holding improves postural control (Caron et al, 2004), but this hypothesis is disputed (Malakhov et al, 2014).…”