Vinod Ramakrishnan

JXH4007 Performance PhysiologyVinod Ramakrishnan & Adrian Gunn

• 25 year old kalari fighter

• 5 yrs experience

• Moved into county level this year:• Increased number of bouts (12)

• Signs of fatigue; unable to sustain high levels of speed strength required

Scenario/ Background

So…why?

Fatigue

Musculoskeletal structure & function

Fibre typesEnzymes

Central

Peripheral

RPE & Psychological factors

O2 availability

• Perform exercise protocol that will enable us to quantify levels of fatigue.

• Identify physiological, psychological and environmental factors that contribute to development of fatigue.

• Make recommendations related to findings and scenario.

What can we do?

What we did: Protocol

‘Fresh’process analysis

‘Fatigued’Fatigueanalysis

• Analysis: Isokinetic dynamometer

• 90° isometric leg contraction• Electrical stimulation twitch

applied

What we did: Protocol

• Sustained 50% (of 1 RM) leg extension until exhaustion

• 30 secs rest at failure

• Repetition of 50% contraction

• End when Vinod unable to lift weight

Fatiguing process

Nm % of fatigue (due to central or peripheral)

Loss of MVC 60.7 100% (both combined)If activation remained 28.15 46.37%Loss due to activation 32.55 53.63%

Fresh FatigueMVC 245Nm 184.3NmSI twitch 1.6Nm 8.6NmResting twitch 55.9Nm 49.3NmCAR 99.35% 95.54%ITT 97.14% 82.55%Max. potential contraction

252.22Nm 223.24Nm

If activation remained 216.85Nm

Results

•Very high utilization (ITT )/activation of MVC

•Reduction in MVC ~25% when fatigued

•Implications/recommendations for athlete and trainer:

2 key areas• 1) Recovery• 2) Training

What to take from this?

Improving performance & Reducingfatigue: Recovery strategies

Performance

(Adapted from Calder, 2003)(Gandevia, 2001)

Psychological

Fatigue

Musculoskeletal structure & function

Environmental

Neural fatigue

Metabolic fatigue

• Progressive resistance training• Speed strength, power

• Combat factors analysed • early onset of fatigue,

inability to sustain high levels of performance for longer duration

Type of treatment

• Principles of training

• Prescription: • Frequency, intensity,

duration, type

• Ways of increasing load

• Periodisation• Tapering

Progressive overload

Resistance training

JXH4007 Performance PhysiologyVinod Ramakrishnan & Adrian Gunn