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Increased central facilitation of antagonist reciprocal inhibition at the onset of dorsiflexion following explosive strength training

Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences and Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Submitted 29 October 2007 ; accepted in final form 19 June 2008

At the onset of dorsiflexion disynaptic reciprocal inhibition (DRI) of soleus motoneurons is increased to prevent activation of the antagonistic plantar flexors. This is caused by descending facilitation of transmission in the DRI pathway. Because the risk of eliciting stretch reflexes in the ankle plantar flexors at the onset of dorsiflexion is larger the quicker the movement, it was hypothesized that DRI may be increased when subjects are trained to perform dorsiflexion movements as quickly as possible For this purpose, 14 healthy human subjects participated in explosive strength training of the ankle dorsiflexor muscles 3 times a week for 4 wk. Test sessions were conducted before, shortly after, and 2 wk after the training period. The rate of torque development measured at 30, 50, 100, and 200 ms after onset of voluntary explosive isometric dorsiflexion increased by 24–33% (P < 0.05). DRI was measured as the depression of the soleus H reflex following conditioning stimulation of the peroneal nerve (1.1 x motor threshold) at an interval of 2–3 ms. At the onset of dorsiflexion the amount of DRI measured relative to DRI at rest increased significantly from 6% before the training to 22% after the training (P < 0.05). We speculate that DRI at the onset of movement may be increased in healthy subjects following explosive strength training to ensure efficient suppression of the antagonist muscles as the dorsiflexion movement becomes faster.

motor control; agonist-antagonist coordination; rate of torque development