An Exercise Model to Study Progressive Muscle Fatigue During Constant Work Rate Exercise on a Cycle Ergometer.

Abstract

To gain insight into mechanisms of muscle fatigue in common everyday activities such as bicycling and running, those muscles which limit performance should be studied by tracking the fatiguability of the same muscles during the activity. However, conventional ergometric testing modes such as stationary cycling or treadmill exercise do not readily lend themselves to quantitating the progressive increase in muscle fatigue, characterized by a loss of muscle power. It has therefore not been possible to link the inherent absolute power losses directly to other serially acquired physiological, biochemical, and psychological measurements during constant work rate exercise. Doing so would allow the gradually increasing muscle fatigue and its potential causes to be systematically and accurately assessed.