Exercise Science Commons^™

Rates Of Performance Loss And Neuromuscular Activity In Men And Women During Cycling: Evidence For A Common Metabolic Basis Of Muscle Fatigue, Christopher W. Sundberg, Sandra K. Hunter, Matthew W. Bundle

Exercise Science Faculty Research and Publications

The durations that muscular force and power outputs can be sustained until failure fall predictably on an exponential decline between an individual’s 3-s burst maximum to the maximum performance they can sustain aerobically. The exponential time constants describing these rates of performance loss are similar across individuals, suggesting that a common metabolically based mechanism governs muscle fatigue; however, these conclusions come from studies mainly on men. To test whether the same physiological understanding can be applied to women, we compared the performance-duration relationships and neuromuscular activity between seven men [23.3 ± 1.9 (SD) yr] and seven women (21.7 ± 1.8 …