Fatigue accumulation and twitch potentiation during complex MVC-relative profiles

Abstract

Fatigue accumulation can be significantly influenced by post-activation potentiation (PAP). This phenomenon leads to increased force generating capacity after a series of conditioning efforts. The purpose of our study was to examine how the order of force demands impacted muscle fatigue accumulation, and how fatigue was affected by potentiation. We had 33 participants complete one of four different force orders, consisting of 5 cycles of 12-s submaximal isometric “task plateaus”. Every order consisted of 8 force plateaus of the different intensity, arranged in a different ways. A subset of 18 participants then received a stimulated muscle twitch, and all participants performed a brief MVC. Each task plateau was followed by a 12s long 10% MVC “reference plateau” also followed by twitch and MVC. Overall, the order of the force presentation only had an impact on fatigue levels and twitch potentiation during the first cycle. Maximum voluntary forces decreased, and twitch forces increased, at different rates between orders during the first cycle. At the end of each cycle, there was no difference between any of the orders in terms of twitch potentiation or decrease in MVC force. In a task that features identical force patterns, arranged in different orders, the order did not affect the final fatigue accumulation or potentiation level.