Dance Technique and Injury Prevention by Howse Justin; Hancock Shirley; Hancock Shirley

Author:Howse, Justin; Hancock, Shirley; Hancock, Shirley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Fatigue

It is worth repeating that in order to increase muscle strength significantly the muscle has to be exercised to the point of fatigue. If a muscle is exercised well within its capabilities, it has, as it were, no incentive to become stronger. (Physiologists thoroughly disapprove of the way the last statement was framed, implying as it does that muscles or other tissues have independent thought processes or psyches of their own!). In order to strengthen a muscle it is necessary to work it to the point where it tires.

What is meant by fatigue? It has been defined as the inability to carry out the assigned task in the assigned manner under specific conditions known to the subject as a result of prior activity. However, this is a behavioural definition. Physiologically, the point of fatigue is very much more difficult to measure. It may be done by measurement of the maximum aerobic capacity after which the oxygen consumption does not increase despite an increased performance of work. This extra work is anaerobic and the onset of fatigue will quickly result in a failure to continue the work at that intensity. Alternatively, electrical activity can be measured electromyographically during a maximal isometric contraction. When the electrical activity increases at the time that the mechanical force is decreasing, this shows that despite a continuing full effort by the subject, fatigue is occurring in that muscle.

Unfortunately, both of these methods of determining fatigue can really only be carried out in the laboratory and as a result the physiotherapist has to push the dancer, or the dancer has to push himself, to continue with the programme of exercises until it is felt that genuine fatigue of the muscle is occurring.

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