Early deactivation of slower muscle fibres at high movement frequencies

Animals produce rapid movements using fast cyclical muscle contractions. These types of movements are better suited to faster muscle fibres within muscles of mixed fibre types as they can shorten at faster velocities and achieve higher activation-deactivation rates than their slower counterparts. Preferential recruitment of faster muscle fibres has previously been shown during high velocity contractions. Additionally, muscle deactivation takes longer than activation and therefore may pose a limitation to fast cyclical contractions. It has been speculated that slower fibres may be deactivated before faster fibres to accommodate their longer deactivation time. This study aimed to test whether shifts in muscle fibre recruitment occur with derecruitment of slow fibres before faster fibres at high cycle frequencies. Electromyographic (EMG) signals were collected from the medial gastrocnemius at an extreme range of cycle frequencies and workloads. Wavelets were used to resolve the EMG signals into time and frequency space and the primary sources of variability within the EMG frequency spectra were identified through principal component analysis. Early derecruitment of slower fibres was evident at the end of muscle excitation at higher cycle frequencies, as determined by reduced low-frequency EMG content, and additional slower fibre recruitment was present at the highest cycle frequency. The duration of muscle excitation reached a minimum of about 150 ms and did not change for the three highest cycle frequencies, suggesting a duration limit for the medial gastrocnemius. This study provides further evidence of modifications of muscle fibre recruitment strategies to meet the mechanical demands of movement.