Effects of endurance cycling training on neuromuscular fatigue in healthy active men. Part II: Corticospinal excitability and voluntary activation

This study investigated the effects of 9-week endurance cycling training on central fatigability and corticomotor excitability of the locomotor muscles. Fourteen healthy participants undertook three incremental fatiguing cycling tests to volitional exhaustion (EXH): (i) before training (PRE), (ii) after training at the same absolute power output as PRE (POST_ABS) and (iii) after training at the same percentage of V̇O_2max as PRE (POST_REL). At baseline (i.e. before cycling), every 5 min during cycling and immediately at EXH, a neuromuscular evaluation including a series of 5-s knee extensions at 100, 75 and 50% of maximal voluntary knee extension (MVC) was performed. During each contraction, transcranial magnetic and peripheral nerve stimuli were elicited to obtain motor evoked potential (MEP), silent period (SP) and compound muscle action potential (Mmax) and to calculate voluntary activation (VA). The MEP·Mmax⁻¹ ratio recorded from vastus lateralis at 100 and 50% MVC did not show any difference between conditions. At 75% MVC, MEP exhibited significantly lower values in POST_ABS and POST_REL compared to PRE at baseline (P = 0.022 and P = 0.011, respectively) as well as at 25% of time to EXH of PRE (P = 0.022) for POST_REL. No adaptations, either at baseline or during cycling, were observed for VA and SPs. In conclusion, endurance training may result in some adaptations in the corticomotor responses when measured at rest or with low level of fatigue, yet these adaptations do not translate into attenuation of central fatigue at a similar cycling workload or at exhaustion.