Effects of activation frequency on dynamic performance of human fresh and fatigued muscles

The force-frequency relationship for an individual muscle depends on the fatigue state, the length at which it is activated, and the muscle's activation history. The relationship among stimulation frequency and dynamic (nonisometric) muscle performance measurements (e.g., excursion, work, peak power, and average power) has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between stimulation frequency and dynamic performance measurements for fresh and fatigued muscles. Constant-frequency and catchlike-inducing trains (CFT and CIT, respectively) were tested. When fresh, interpulse intervals of 40-50 ms [20-25 pulses/s (pps)] produced maximum performance for CFTs. For CITs, maximum performance occurred at interpulse intervals of 50-60 ms ( approximately 16-20 pps). Generally, CFTs produced slightly greater performance than did CITs. When fatigued, however, CITs produced greater performance than did CFTs. Maximum performance for CFTs occurred at interpulse intervals of 20-40 ms (25-50 pps) and at 30-50 ms (20-33 pps) for CITs. Enhancement of performance by CITs when fatigued may be due to less susceptibility to impairments in excitation-contraction coupling and greater ability to maintain rates of rise of force than CFTs.