Neuromuscular changes associated with superior fatigue resistance in African runners.

Background: An enhanced ability to resist fatigue has been proposed as one of African runners' performance superiority sources, although their fatigue resistance during sustained non-running-specific activities remain unclear. This study aimed to compare fatigue resistance during sustained isometric exercise between performance-matched African and European runners.

Methods: Thirty long-distance runners (16 African, 14 European) performed submaximal fatiguing sustained isometric knee extensions.

The effect of induced alkalosis and submaximal cycling on neuromuscular response during sustained isometric contraction.

The aim of this study was to determine if inducing metabolic alkalosis would alter neuromuscular control after 50 min of standardized submaximal cycling. Eight trained male cyclists (mean age 32 years, s = 7; [Vdot]O(2max) 62 ml . kg(-1) x min(-1), s = 8) ingested capsules containing either CaCO(3) (placebo) or NaHCO(3) (0.

Agonist-antagonist common drive during fatiguing knee extension efforts using surface electromyography.

Aim: This study examined the electromyographic (EMG) activity of knee extensor agonists and a knee extensor antagonist muscle during fatiguing isometric extensions across a range of force levels.

Methods: Five female subjects performed isometric knee extensions at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of their maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) with the knee flexed to 75 degrees. Surface EMG (SEMG) was recorded with bipolar electrodes from the vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF) and the root-mean-squared (RMS) amplitude and the percentage frequency compression of these recordings were calculated.