Effect of intensive prior exercise on muscle fiber activation, oxygen uptake kinetics, and oxygen uptake plateau...

We tested the hypothesis that the described increase in oxygen uptake ([Formula: see text])-plateau incidence following a heavy-severe prior exercise is caused by a steeper increase in [Formula: see text] and muscle fiber activation in the submaximal intensity domain.

Twenty-one male participants performed a standard ramp test, a [Formula: see text] verification bout, an unprimed ramp test with an individualized ramp slope and a primed ramp test with the same ramp slope, which was preceded by an intensive exercise at 50% of the difference between gas exchange threshold and maximum workload. Muscle fiber activation was recorded from vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and gastrocnemius medialis using a surface electromyography (EMG) device in a subgroup of 11 participants. Linear regression analyses were used to calculate the [Formula: see text]-([Formula: see text]) and EMG-(∆RMS/∆P) ramp test kinetics.

Twenty out of the 21 participants confirmed their [Formula: see text] in the verification bout. The [Formula: see text]-plateau incidence in these participants did not differ between the unprimed (n = 8) and primed (n = 7) ramp test (p = 0.500). The [Formula: see text] was lower in the primed compared to the unprimed ramp test (9.40 ± 0.66 vs. 10.31 ± 0.67 ml min^-1 W^-1, p < 0.001), whereas the ∆RMS/∆P did not differ between the ramp tests (0.62 ± 0.15 vs. 0.66 ± 0.14% W^-1; p = 0.744).

These findings do not support previous studies, which reported an increase in [Formula: see text]-plateau incidence as well as steeper increases in [Formula: see text] and muscle fiber activation in the submaximal intensity domain following a heavy-severe prior exercise.