Article

Peripheral fatigue has been known to result in altered force output and muscle
recruitment patterns by the CNS. These changes may affect lower extremity
movement during gait, and such behavior may present implications for the
interpretation of nonlinear analysis of gait in situations where a subject might
become fatigued. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a single
bout of resistance training on lower extremity movement during treadmill walking
in healthy subjects. Fifteen recreationally active subjects performed two 10min
trials of treadmill walking at their preferred speed while knee and ankle
kinematics of their right limb were recorded via optical motion capture. Between
walking trials, subjects performed a series of lower extremity resistance
exercises designed to induce moderate muscular fatigue. Detrended fluctuation
analysis of stride length and stride time revealed that statistical persistence
was unaffected by moderate muscle fatigue. Estimates of finite-time maximal
Lyapunov exponents for ankle angle, knee angle, and vertical ankle movement over
the short (0-1 stride) and long (4-10 strides) term were also unaffected by a
single bout of resistance training. These results suggest that control of
locomotion in healthy individuals, as measured by the nonlinear dynamics of lower
extremity movement used here, is relatively robust to moderate muscle fatigue.
Additional work with greater levels of fatigue will be necessary to fully
characterize the effects of muscular fatigue on gait.
CI - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS