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J Appl Physiol (February 13, 2004). doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01010.2003
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Submitted on September 16, 2003
Accepted on February 5, 2004

NEURAL AND MECHANICAL RESPONSES OF THE TRICEPS SURAE MUSCLE GROUP AFTER ONE HOUR REPEATED FAST PASSIVE STRETCHES

Janne Avela1*, Taija Finni1, Tuomas Liikavainio1, Elina Niemela1, and Paavo V Komi1

1 Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: avela{at}sport.jyu.fi.

Experiments were carried out to examine interaction between mechanical changes of the muscle-tendon unit and reduced reflex sensitivity after repeated and prolonged passive muscle stretching (RPS). There is some evidence that this interaction might be relevant also during active stretch-shortening cycle type of fatigue tasks. The results demonstrated a clear deterioration of voluntarily and electrically induced muscle contractions after RPS. Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), average electromyographic activities of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles and maximal twitch contraction decreased on average by 13.8, 10.4, 7.6, and 16.8 %, respectively. In addition, there was a 14 % lengthening in the total duration of the twitch. MVCs measured at different ankle joint angles revealed a downward and rightward shift in the torque-fascicle length curve after RPS. Interestingly, there was a crossing in the torque-fascicle length curves while measured at different activation levels but at the same joint angle before and after RPS. Even though no changes were observed in the activation level during MVCs, all the reflex parameters showed a clear reduction after RPS. This study presents evidence that repeated and prolonged passive muscle stretching can lead to some modification of material behaviour of the aponeurosis-tendon system such as stress relaxation and/or plastic deformation. In addition, altered material properties seem to affect proprioceptive feedback and, therefore, the motor unit activation in proportion to the contractile failure.




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