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Exercise effects upon reflex time components in weight lifters and distance runners
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
|January 1, 1981
Summary
Weight lifters exhibit shorter patellar reflex times than endurance athletes. Isometric exercise impacts reflex times differently between power and endurance athletes, with complex bi-directional changes observed.
Area of Science:
- Neuromuscular Physiology
- Sports Science
- Exercise Physiology
Background:
- Differentiating between power-type and endurance-type athletes is crucial for training optimization.
- Neuromuscular parameters, specifically reflex responses, may offer insights into these athletic profiles.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify neuromuscular parameters distinguishing power (weight lifters) from endurance (long-distance runners) athletes.
- To investigate the effects of isometric exercise on patellar and Achilles reflex time components in these athlete groups.
Main Methods:
- Fractionated reflex time components were measured using tendon tap stimuli on the patellar and Achilles tendons.
- Participants included weight lifters and long-distance runners.
- Isometric knee extensor and plantar flexor exercises were performed.
Main Results:
- Weight lifters showed significantly shorter resting patellar reflex latency compared to distance runners.
- Isometric exercise induced distinct changes in reflex times: weight lifters showed lengthening, while endurance athletes displayed initial lengthening followed by shortening.
- Both groups exhibited initial elongation in Achilles reflex components post-exercise, with a subsequent trend towards shortening.
Conclusions:
- Patellar reflex latency may serve as a differentiator between power and endurance athletes.
- Isometric exercise elicits complex, group-specific, and bi-directional alterations in neuromuscular reflex responses.
- Competing physiological factors likely contribute to the observed variability in reflex time components following isometric exertion.