Imperial College London
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ProfessorDarioFarina

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Bioengineering

Chair in Neurorehabilitation Engineering
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1387d.farina Website

 
 
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Location

 

RSM 4.15Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Del:2019:10.1113/JP277250,
author = {Del, Vecchio A and Casola, A and Negro, F and Scorcelletti, M and Bazzucchi, I and Enoka, R and Felici, F and Farina, D},
doi = {10.1113/JP277250},
journal = {The Journal of Physiology},
pages = {1873--1887},
title = {The increase in muscle force after 4 weeks of strength training is mediated by adaptations in motor unit recruitment and rate coding},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP277250},
volume = {597},
year = {2019}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The strength of a muscle typically begins to increase after only a few sessions of strength training. This increase is usually attributed to changes in the neural drive to muscle as a result of adaptations at the cortical or spinal level. We investigated the change in the discharge characteristics of large populations of longitudinally tracked motor units in tibialis anterior before and after 4 weeks of strength training the ankledorsiflexor muscles with isometric contractions. The adaptations exhibited by 14 individuals were compared with 14 control subjects. Highdensity electromyogram grids with 128 electrodes recorded the myoelectric activity during isometric ramp contractions to the target forces of 35%, 50% and 70% of maximal voluntary force. The motor unit recruitment and derecruitment thresholds, discharge rate, interspike intervals and estimates of synaptic inputs to motor neurons were assessed. The normalized recruitmentthreshold forces of the motor units were decreased after strength training (P < 0.05). Moreover, discharge rate increased by 3.3 ± 2.5 pps (average across subjects and motor units) during the plateau phase of the submaximal isometric contractions (P < 0.001). Discharge rates at recruitment and derecruitment were not modified by training (P < 0.05). The association between force and motor unit discharge rate during the rampphase of the contractions was also not altered by training (P < 0.05). These results demonstrate for the first time that the increase in muscle force after 4 weeks of strength training is the result of an increase in motor neuron output from the spinal cord to the muscle.
AU  - Del,Vecchio A
AU  - Casola,A
AU  - Negro,F
AU  - Scorcelletti,M
AU  - Bazzucchi,I
AU  - Enoka,R
AU  - Felici,F
AU  - Farina,D
DO  - 10.1113/JP277250
EP  - 1887
PY  - 2019///
SN  - 1469-7793
SP  - 1873
TI  - The increase in muscle force after 4 weeks of strength training is mediated by adaptations in motor unit recruitment and rate coding
T2  - The Journal of Physiology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP277250
UR  - https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1113/JP277250
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/67688
VL  - 597
ER  -
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