Plantar flexion fatigue and muscle fiber type in power and endurance athletes

Abstract

Plantar flexion fatigue and muscle fiber type in power and endurance athletes. Med. Sci. Sports Exercise, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 262-267, 1980. The relationship between isometric plantar flexion strength fatigue patterns and muscle fiber type composition of the gastrocnemius was assessed in endurance (N = 8) and power (N = 8) trained males. Following baseline strength assessment, subjects were administered two different 25 trial isometric exercise regimens: on one exercise day each 10-sec fatigue trial was separated by a five-sec intertrial rest period, while on the second exercise day the 10-sec fatigue trials was separated by a 20-sec intertrial rest periods. Muscle biopsies were secured from the right medial gastrocnemius. Significantly different fatigue patterns resulted between power and endurance groups, with the power group fatiguing five times faster than the endurance group in the 10.5 condition and demonstrating more complex fatigue curves in both exercise conditions. Slow twitch fiber percent number correlated with rate of fatigability as measured by linear trend coefficients in power (r = .84) and endurance groups (r = .26). Rate of fatigability correlated with maximum isometric strength in both power (r = -.66) and endurance (r = .86) groups. Thus, maximum isometric strength was a better predictor of rate of fatigability than muscle fiber type composition.