Skeletal muscle fatigue - from the peripheral to the central mechanisms

Abstract

Muscle fatigue is a general phenomenon affecting both the peripheral motor unit (muscle fiber, neuromuscular junction) and the central nervous system, considering the numerous controversies existing on the preponderance of central or peripheral factors in the induction and development of this phenomenon. In the course of time there has been a constant concern for defining the phenomenon of muscle fatigue, most researchers have currently considered muscle fatigue as a gradual, sequential process, based on many factors that can be evoked from the muscle fiber level up to the cortical level. Our study has proposed the analysis of the field literature as an attempt to systematize current knowledge concerning the mechanisms which determine striated skeletal muscle fatigue.

Key words:

fatigue, muscle fiber, exercise.