Exercise-Induced Fatigue in One Leg Does Not Impair the Neuromuscular Performance in the Contralateral Leg but Improves the Excitability of the Ipsilateral Corticospinal Pathway

To investigate the influence of pre-induced fatigue in one leg on neuromuscular performance and corticospinal responses of the contralateral homologous muscles, three experiments were conducted with different exercise protocols; A <i>(n</i> = 12): a 60 s rest vs. time-matched sustained left leg knee extension maximum voluntary contraction (MVC), B (<i>n</i> = 12): a 60 s rest vs. time-matched left leg MVC immediately followed by 60 s right leg MVC, and C (<i>n</i> = 9): a similar protocol to experiment B, but with blood flow occluded in the left leg while the right leg was performing the 60 s MVC. The neuromuscular assessment included 5 s knee extensions at 100%, 75%, and 50% of MVC. At each force level, transcranial magnetic and peripheral nerve stimuli were elicited to investigate the influence of different protocols on the right (tested) knee extensors&#8217; maximal force output, voluntary activation, corticospinal excitability, and inhibition. The pre-induced fatigue in the left leg did not alter the performance nor the neuromuscular responses recorded from the right leg in the three experiments (all <i>p</i> &gt; 0.3). However, enhanced corticospinal pathway excitability was evident in the tested knee extensors (<i>p</i> = 0.002). These results suggest that the pre-induced fatigue and muscle ischemia in one leg did not compromise the central and peripheral components of the neuromuscular function in the tested contralateral leg.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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