Effects of general and local fatigue on postural control: a review

This review addresses the effects of fatiguing general muscular exercise (involving the whole body) and fatiguing local muscular exercise (involving a particular muscular group) on postural control. Short and intensive general exercise increases postural sway when the energy expenditure induced exceeds the lactate accumulation threshold. Exhaustive local exercise affects postural control when it generates a strength loss at least 25-30% of maximal voluntary contraction. Non-intensive general and local exercises can also disturb postural control when the exercise is prolonged. Both general and local exercises contribute to altering the effectiveness of sensory inputs and motor output of postural control. Different compensatory postural strategies are triggered to counteract or limit the disturbance of postural control due to the general and local muscle fatigue. Conceptual models are proposed to explain how the central contribution privileges certain sensory information and neglects and/or compensates other information and improves motor output of postural control by developing motor strategies according to the context of muscle fatigue.