The influence of muscle fiber tye composition on the patterns of responses for electromyographic and mechanomyographic amplitude and mean power frequency during a fatiguing submaximal isometric muscle action

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of muscle fiber type composition on the patterns of responses for electromyographic (EMG) and mechanomyographic (MMG) amplitude and mean power frequency (MPF) during a fatiguing submaximal isometric muscle action. Five resistance-trained (mean ± SD age = 23.2 ± 3.7 yrs) and five aerobically-trained (mean ± SD age = 32.6 ± 5.2 yrs) men volunteered to perform a fatiguing, 30-sec submaximal isometric muscle action of the leg extensors at 50% of the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). Muscle biopsies from the vastus lateralis revealed that the myosin heavy chain (MHC) composition for the resistance-trained subjects was 59.0 ± 4.2% Type IIa, 0.1 ± 0.1% Type IIx, and 40.9 ± 4.3% Type I. The aerobically-trained subjects had 27.4 ± 7.8% Type IIa, 0.0 ± 0.0% Type IIx, and 72.6 ± 7.8% Type I MHC. The patterns of responses and mean values for absolute and normalized EMG amplitude and MPF during the fatiguing muscle action were similar for the resistance-trained and aerobically-trained subjects. The resistance-trained subjects demonstrated relatively stable levels for absolute and normalized MMG amplitude and MPF across time, but the aerobically-trained subjects showed increases in MMG amplitude and decreases in MMG MPF. The absolute MMG amplitude and MPF values for the resistance-trained subjects were also greater than those for the aerobically-trained subjects. These findings suggested that unlike surface EMG, MMG may be a useful noninvasive technique for examining fatigue-related differences in muscle fiber type composition.