Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jelekin Elastic band exercise induces greater neuromuscular fatigue than phasic isometric contractions Sidney Grosprêtre a, ⁎ , Philippe Gimenez a , Laurent Mourot b,c , Giuseppe Coratella a,d a EA4660-C3S Laboratory – Culture, Sports, Health and Society, and Exercise Performance, Health, Innovation Platform, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France b EA3920-Prognostic Markers and Regulatory Factors of Heart and Vascular Diseases, and Exercise Performance, Health, Innovation Platform, Univ. Bourgogne Franche- Comté, Besançon, France c Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia d Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Triceps surae Electromyography H-reflex M-wave V-wave Force ABSTRACT This study investigated the neuromuscular fatigue following an elastic band exercise (EB) of the plantar flexors, compared to an intermittent phasic isometric exercise (ISO). Eleven young healthy males (age: 24.2 ± 3.7) took part in the study, consisting of one experimental session involving two 5-min fatiguing protocols separated by 20 min rest and performed randomly. Both exercises were performed at maximal motor output of the plantar flexor muscles, EMG being used as a feedback signal. Neuromuscular fatigue was assessed through changes in maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and in evoked responses of soleus and gastrocnemii muscles to posterior tibial nerve stimulation (H-reflex, M-wave, V-wave). Both conditions induced significant decrease in MVC force, but to a greater extent after EB (-20.0 ± 5.1%, P < 0.001) than after ISO (-12.3 ± 4.6%, P = 0.037). While no effect was observed in M-wave amplitude after both exercises, EB resulted in greater decrease of normalized H-reflexes compared to isometric condition. Normalized V-wave significantly decreased only after EB. As a conclusion, the greater fatigability found after EB as compared to ISO was underlain by muscular as well as nervous factors. This higher impact was attributed to the dynamic nature of elastic band exercise as compared to isometric contractions. 1. Introduction Both in training and rehabilitation, the use of elastic bands has largely increased in the recent years. Initially used for rehabilitation purposes (Simoneau et al., 2001), they have progressively spread to the sport-practice (Mascarin et al., 2016). However, despite its popularity in training, less is known about the acute effects of one single exercise using elastic bands compared to traditional resistance exercise. Yet, the knowledge about the effects of fatigue following a bout of exercise performed under elastic resistance would help to optimize the im- plementation of such modality within a training session. It is well known that neuromuscular fatigue may vary according to the type of exercise performed (e.g.: dynamic or static, phasic or tonic, intermittent or continuous). Exercising with elastic bands represents a combination of two contractions modalities that have different char- acteristics: dynamic contractions, i.e. successive concentric and ec- centric phases, and phasic contractions, i.e. the variation of the pro- duced force during the contraction. More importantly, the phasic contractions induced by the use of elastic bands are characterized by variable resistance throughout the movement: the load increases as the band is stretched. The specificeffects of elastic exercise on strength development have been mostly attributed to the specificity of its ec- centric loading component (Anderson et al., 2008; Wallace et al., 2006). The use of elastic resistance was also suggested to provide greater neural activation than free weight exercises, and will then lead to greater neuromuscular changes following repeated contractions under elastic resistance (Hughes and McBride, 2005; Melchiorri and Rainoldi, 2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelekin.2018.12.003 Received 13 June 2018; Received in revised form 1 November 2018; Accepted 10 December 2018 Abbreviations: EB, Elastic Band exercise; H max , Maximal H-reflex; H pot , Maximal H-reflex potentiated (following the MVC); H sup , Maximal H-reflex superimposed (evoked during the MVC); ISO, Isometric exercise; M atHmax , M-wave accompanying H max ; M atHpot , M-wave accompanying H pot ; M atHsup , M-wave accompanying H sup ; M max , Maximal M-wave; M pot , Maximal M-wave potentiated (following the MVC); M sup , Maximal M-wave superimposed (evoked during the MVC); MVC, Maximal Voluntary Contraction; RMS, Root Mean Square of muscle electromyographic activity (EMG) ⁎ Corresponding author at: EA4660-CS3 “Culture, Sport, Health and Society”, UPFR Sport, 31, chemin de l’Epitaphe, 25000 Besançon, France. E-mail address: sidney.grospretre@univ-fcomte.fr (S. Grosprêtre). Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 1050-6411/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Grospretre, S., Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelekin.2018.12.003