Abstract
The evaluation of rate of force development during rapid contractions has recently become quite popular for characterising explosive strength of athletes, elderly individuals and patients. The main aims of this narrative review are to describe the neuromuscular determinants of rate of force development and to discuss various methodological considerations inherent to its evaluation for research and clinical purposes. Rate of force development (1) seems to be mainly determined by the capacity to produce maximal voluntary activation in the early phase of an explosive contraction (first 50–75 ms), particularly as a result of increased motor unit discharge rate; (2) can be improved by both explosive-type and heavy-resistance strength training in different subject populations, mainly through an improvement in rapid muscle activation; (3) is quite difficult to evaluate in a valid and reliable way. Therefore, we provide evidence-based practical recommendations for rational quantification of rate of force development in both laboratory and clinical settings.
Highlights
Rate of force development (RFD), which is derived from the force- or torquetime curves recorded during explosive voluntary contractions (Aagaard et al 2002a)—hereafter referred to as rapid or ballistic actions—is increasingly evaluated to characterise explosive strength of athletes, elderly individuals and patients
For more than five decades, isometric MVC strength has been extensively quantified to characterise in vivo skeletal muscle function in a variety of subject populations and conditions
One of the key points of this narrative review is that rapid muscle activation—likely through the critical role of Motor unit (MU) discharge rate—may be considered as the main determinant of RFD in the early phase of the contraction
Summary
Are consistent with the moderate-to-strong correlations observed between RFD measured during twitch and voluntary contractions (Andersen and Aagaard 2006; Folland et al 2014), given that twitch contractile properties are strongly influenced by muscle fibre type (e.g., Harridge et al 1996) These data indicate that fibre type composition may be an important discriminating factor for interindividual and inter-muscular differences in RFD measured in the early force rise. As discussed in this subsection, various modalities of strength training may evoke parallel increases in RFD and muscle activation (EMG amplitude, rate of EMG rise, H-reflex amplitude) during the initial phase of a voluntary contraction These observations support the contention that neural adaptations are a strong contributor to the gain in RFD induced by training (Aagaard 2003), additional. The age-related deficit in RFD observed between the 60- and 80-year-old women was reduced from 43 % prior to training to 15 % following training with no statistical age-related difference observed (Caserotti et al 2008)
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