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Understanding Muscle Fatigue and Recovery

Muscle fatigue occurs when a muscle is unable to maintain force after prolonged activity, resulting from changes within muscle fibers. Central fatigue, a feeling of tiredness from the central nervous system, may occur before actual muscle fatigue as a protective mechanism. Factors contributing to muscle fatigue include inadequate calcium ion release, depletion of creatine phosphate and glycogen, buildup of lactic acid and ADP, and failure of action potentials. After exercise, oxygen consumption remains elevated as oxygen is used to restore metabolic conditions and convert lactic acid through aerobic respiration. Elevated body temperature and ongoing tissue repair processes also boost post-exercise oxygen use.

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Mary Grace Facularin
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147 views13 pages

Understanding Muscle Fatigue and Recovery

Muscle fatigue occurs when a muscle is unable to maintain force after prolonged activity, resulting from changes within muscle fibers. Central fatigue, a feeling of tiredness from the central nervous system, may occur before actual muscle fatigue as a protective mechanism. Factors contributing to muscle fatigue include inadequate calcium ion release, depletion of creatine phosphate and glycogen, buildup of lactic acid and ADP, and failure of action potentials. After exercise, oxygen consumption remains elevated as oxygen is used to restore metabolic conditions and convert lactic acid through aerobic respiration. Elevated body temperature and ongoing tissue repair processes also boost post-exercise oxygen use.

Uploaded by

Mary Grace Facularin
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Muscle Fatigue

ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY
Muscle Fatigue

• The inability of a muscle to maintain force of contraction after


prolonged activity is called muscle fatigue
• Fatigue results mainly from changes within muscle fibers
Muscle Fatigue

• Even before actual muscle fatigue occurs, a person may have feelings of
tiredness and the desire to cease activity
• This response, called central fatigue, is caused by changes in the central
nervous system (brain and spinal cord)
Muscle Fatigue

• Although its exact mechanism is unknown, it may be a protective mechanism to


stop a person from exercising before muscles become damaged
• Although the precise mechanisms that cause muscle fatigue are still not clear,
several factors are thought to contribute
Muscle Fatigue

• One is inadequate release of calcium ions from the SR, resulting in a decline
of Ca2+ concentration in the sarcoplasm
• Depletion of creatine phosphate also is associated with fatigue
• But surprisingly, the ATP levels in fatigued muscle often are not much lower
than those in resting muscle
Muscle Fatigue

• Other factors that contribute to muscle fatigue include:


• insufficient oxygen,
• depletion of glycogen and other nutrients,
• buildup of lactic acid and ADP, and
• failure of action potentials in the motor neuron to
release enough acetylcholine
Oxygen Consumption After Exercise

• During prolonged periods of muscle contraction, increases in breathing rate


and blood flow enhance oxygen delivery to muscle tissue
• After muscle contraction has stopped, heavy breathing continues for a while,
and oxygen consumption remains above the resting level
Oxygen Consumption After Exercise

• Depending on the intensity of the exercise, the recovery period may be just
a few minutes, or it may last as long as several hours
• The term oxygen debt refers to the added oxygen, over & above the resting
oxygen consumption, that is taken into the body after exercise
Oxygen Consumption After Exercise

• This extra oxygen is used to “pay back” or restore metabolic


conditions to the resting level in three ways:
• (1) to convert lactic acid back into glycogen stores in the liver,
• (2) to resynthesize creatine phosphate and ATP in muscle fibers,
and
• (3) to replace the oxygen removed from myoglobin
Oxygen Consumption After Exercise

• The metabolic changes that occur during exercise can account


for only some of the extra oxygen used after exercise
• Only a small amount of glycogen resynthesis occurs from lactic
acid
• Instead, most glycogen is made much later from dietary
carbohydrates
Oxygen Consumption After Exercise

• Much of the lactic acid that remains after exercise is converted back
to pyruvic acid and used for:
• ATP production via aerobic cellular respiration in the heart, liver,
kidneys, and skeletal muscle
• Oxygen use after exercise also is boosted by ongoing changes
Oxygen Consumption After Exercise

• First, the elevated body temperature after strenuous exercise increases the
rate of chemical reactions throughout the body
• Faster reactions use ATP more rapidly, & more oxygen is needed to
produce the ATP
Oxygen Consumption After Exercise

• Second, the heart and the muscles used in breathing are


still working harder than they were at rest, and thus they
consume more ATP
• Third, tissue repair processes are occurring at an increased
pace
• For these reasons, recovery oxygen uptake is a better term
than oxygen debt for the elevated use of oxygen after
exercise

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