Fatigue and recovery of dynamic and steady-state performance in frog skeletal muscle.

Muscle fatigue reflects alterations of both activation and cross-bridge function, which will have markedly different affects on steady-state vs. dynamic performance. Such differences offer insight into the specific origins of fatigue, its mechanical manifestation, and its consequences for animal movement. These were inferred using dynamic contractions (twitches and cyclic work as might occur during locomotion) and steady-state performance with maximal, sustained activation (tetani, stiffness, and isokinetic force) during fatigue and then recovery of frog (Rana pipiens) anterior tibialis muscle. Stiffness remained unaltered during early fatigue of force and then declined only 25% as force dropped 50%, suggesting a decline with fatigue in first the force-generating ability and then the number of cross bridges. The relationship between stiffness and force was different during fatigue and recovery; thus the number of cross bridges and force per cross bridge are not intimately linked. Twitch duration increased with fatigue and then recovered, with trajectories that were remarkably similar to and linear with changes in tetanic force, perhaps belying a common mechanism. Twitch force increased and then returned to resting levels during fatigue, reflecting a slowing of activation kinetics and a decline in cross-bridge number and force. Net cyclic work fatigued to the degree of becoming negative when tetanic force had declined only 15%. Steady-state isokinetic force (i.e., shortening work) declined by 75%, while cyclic shortening work declined only 30%. Slowed activation kinetics were again responsible, augmenting cyclic shortening work but greatly augmenting lengthening work (reducing net work). Steady-state measures can thus seriously mislead regarding muscle performance in an animal during fatigue.