Professional Documents
Culture Documents
on High-Intensity Sport
Performance: A Review
Bas Van Hooren, MSc and Frans Bosch, BSc
Fontys University of Applied Sciences, School of Sport Studies, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
ABSTRACT jumps are performed under time pres- elucidate on whether and how they
sure, and in these situations jump can be altered by training.
RAPID FORCE DEVELOPMENT IS
height may be compromised (19). In
OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE MECHANISMS OF FORCE
many athletic movements such as
FOR MOST SPORTS. AN OFTEN DEVELOPMENT
sprinting, javelin throwing and shot
OVERLOOKED PERFORMANCE putting, the time period in which During force development, 6 consecu-
LIMITING FACTOR IS MUSCLE force can be developed is only about tive mechanisms can be distinguished
SLACK, WHICH IS REPRESENTED 300 milliseconds and usually even (Table, Figure 1). We will first briefly
BY THE DELAY BETWEEN MUSCU- much shorter (97). For example, dur- define these mechanisms and then
LAR CONTRACTION AND RECOIL ing linear top speed sprinting, the expand on their influence.
OF THE SERIES ELASTIC ELE- ground contact time is only about First, a relevant stimulus is detected.
MENTS. WE WILL REVIEW ACUTE 100 milliseconds, while it can take This stimulus contains perception or
AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF up to 900 milliseconds to develop is processed into perception. Subse-
APPLYING COCONTRACTIONS, maximum force (3). Therefore, in quently, the central nervous system
COUNTERMOVEMENTS (CMs), most sports, the capability to rapidly sends a gross signal to activate the
AND EXTERNAL LOAD ON MUSCLE develop force is critical for maximiz- muscles. These 2 processes will be
SLACK. COCONTRACTIONS MAY ing sport performance. In addition, described as the premotor reaction
BE AN EFFECTIVE SOLUTION TO during some daily activities, the capa- time (steps 1 and 2). The signal ar-
REDUCE THE DEGREE OF MUSCLE bility to rapidly develop force is also rives at the neuromuscular junction
SLACK. MOREOVER, CMs AND important. For example, falling (and and propagates across the muscle
EXTERNAL LOAD MAY NEGATIVELY associated injuries) in elderly people membrane to activate chemical pro-
INFLUENCE THE CAPABILITY TO may be prevented by enhancing their cesses which lead to shortening of
DEVELOP COCONTRACTIONS capability to rapidly develop force the contractile element (CE) of the
after a sudden loss of balance. muscle. The delay associated with
AND HENCE MAY BE DETRIMENTAL
these processes is termed the electro-
TO HIGH-INTENSITY SPORT PER- PROCESS OF FORCE chemical delay (ECD; step 3). The
FORMANCE THAT IS USUALLY DEVELOPMENT
contraction of the CE aligns, or
PERFORMED WITH LITTLE OR NO Maximum force development takes straightens, the muscle-tendon unit
EXTERNAL LOAD. time (3) and because time is limited (MTU) that before activation hung
during most sport actions, reducing in a relaxed position between the
the time to reach maximum force will attachment points of the muscle.
INTRODUCTION
likely improve performance. However, The time required for straightening
n most sports, the time to develop
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Influence of Muscle Slack on Sport Performance
Table
Process of force development in 6 chronological steps
literature, steps 3 and 4 are usually Reducing the time to move through and especially open motor skills,
combined and described as the elec- these steps will benefit high-intensity where rapid force development is cru-
tromechanical delay (EMD). As soon sport performance. For example, cial. This review though will start the
as the MTU is aligned, the series reducing the premotor reaction time discussion at the EMD.
elastic element (SEE, the tendon and the associated degree of muscle
and aponeurosis) begins to stretch. slack will result in a faster action, or, THE ELECTROMECHANICAL
SEE stretching will be defined as when total movement time remains DELAY
compliance (step 5). Once CE force equal, provide more time to apply Shortening of the EMD can poten-
production diminishes, the SEE re- force. Unfortunately, most strength tially enhance high-intensity sporting
coils and this is termed the catapult and conditioning research has focused performance (40,52,90,95). Primarily
effect (step 6). In this review, the on the isolated force development ca- in older studies (8,78) the term motor
delay between the start of CE con- pabilities of the muscle CE, neglecting time is also used to describe EMD. The
traction (step 4) and SEE recoil the influence of muscle slack and lim- EMD is the time interval between acti-
(step 5) will be termed muscle slack, iting application of the findings to vation of the muscle fibers (i.e., arrival
and the processes involved in this actual sport performance. This limited of the action potential at the neuro-
delay will be described. application will be evident in closed muscular junction) and the onset of
Figure 1. Schematic representation of the time course of different processes during a squat jump in reaction to a simple visual
stimulus. The duration of the premotor time and mechanical processes is very much related to the context in which the
movement is performed. EMD 5 electromechanical delay.
Figure 2. Schematic representation of the muscle action during a push-off (left) and the time course of force production (right). The
horizontal double arrows indicate where muscle slack dominates the push-off. The increasing size of the vertical arrow in
the left images represents the increase in force production and force application.
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Influence of Muscle Slack on Sport Performance
Figure 3. Schematic representation of the dangling position of the muscle-tendon unit and slack in the contractile element (CE)
and series elastic elements (SEEs).
As mentioned previously, the SEE the value used to represent tendon and SEE and how much of this time
can be slack in relaxed muscles. When slack length is based on arbitrary esti- represents compliance of the SEE,
the MTU is aligned between the mates of which the accuracy cannot although slack may have a large
attachment points, further contraction be determined (18,61). This is because influence on the duration of the
of the CE will reduce SEE slack. In experimental data, for example, based mechanical delay at very short
computational musculoskeletal mod- on ultrasound measures, have only MTU lengths (58,68,76). For exam-
eling studies, slack is usually modeled recently become available for some ple, Sasaki et al. (76) found the
by setting tendon slack length (96). muscles (37,38). Finally, some models mechanical delay of the elbow flexors
This parameter represents the length require a minimum amount of activa- to be approximately 8 milliseconds at
at which the tendon begins to gener- tion, which prevents the MTU from the most extended position (408 joint
ate force. Most of these studies assume going slack. angle), whereas it increased to
that the tendon falls slack at the same Changes in the 3-dimensional mus- approximately 20 milliseconds at
length as the entire MTU, and there- cle shape the most flexed position (i.e., 1308
fore these models have used only ten- Changes in 3-dimensional muscle joint angle). In addition, there was
don slack length to represent MTU shape include mechanisms linked to no significant change in the duration
slack length. However, the length at the muscle bulging out, variable fascial of the mechanical delay when the
which the SEE and CE fall slack can curvature and changing pennation MTU was lengthened beyond slack
differ. For example, a recent study angle. This article will not describe length, indicating that more slack
found that slack length of the gastroc- these mechanisms in detail. lead to an increase in mechanical
nemius medialis fascicles and Achilles Stretch of the series elastic element delay. Furthermore, it has been
tendon occurred at different joint an- The SEE is stretched until the force shown that the way in which the
gles (42), possibly because subcutane- required to bring about more stretch EMD is measured can have a large
ous adipose tissue and/or the parallel is higher than the force needed to
elastic elements first take up slack in influence on the duration (12). For
move the joints. example, the time of the mechanical
the tendon (39,42). Therefore, tendon
slack length may not give a good indi- These 5 mechanisms can differ delay is very much related to the con-
cation of total MTU slack length. greatly between movements, and text in which the movement is per-
Assuming that the MTU falls slack they are therefore very difficult to formed, and therefore large variations
at the same length as the SEE may model, especially for high-intensity in EMD duration have been found,
lead to errors in these computational sport movements. Their influence ranging from about 6 milliseconds
models. In addition, recent research on performance can also differ (41,47,70) to more than 100 millisec-
has shown that CE slack length differs greatly, and this makes it difficult to onds (11,84,85). However, in the lat-
between synergistic muscles (39), interpret the findings of studies that ter studies, the duration of ECD and
making generalizations of slack have investigated the duration of the mechanical delay was not directly
lengths even more limited. Also com- EMD. For example, if the mechanical measured, and the duration of the
putational musculoskeletal modeling delay is 100 milliseconds, it is not mechanical delay is therefore based
studies have been found to be very known how much of this time is on the assumption that the ECD is
sensitive to tendon slack lengths, but needed to take up slack in the CE approximately 6 milliseconds (41,70).
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Influence of Muscle Slack on Sport Performance
force produced by the CE diminishes, antagonist muscle relaxes, the agonist action resulted not only in a shorter
the SEE will recoil and provide extra will be able to produce force with EMD but also in a lower rate of torque
power (54,72). This SEE recoil is called a reduced influence of muscle slack. development (83). Therefore, when
the catapult effect. It is often thought As a consequence, force production at used effectively, cocontractions may
that a stretch and recoil of the SEE the attachment points starts from a high be an appropriate strategy to reduce
only occurs during movements with plateau and performance will benefit the influence of muscle slack. How-
a countermovement (CM) (e.g., a coun- (87). For example, it is well possible that ever, when used inappropriately, they
termovement jump) or where large the MTU of the gastrocnemius would may hamper performance.
external forces stretch the SEE (e.g., be slack right before ground contact in
ground contact during sprinting). Cocontractions in endurance sports.
high-speed running or right before
However, during movements such as Creating cocontractions may not
ground contact in a drop jump if there
a squat jump, the SEE is initially seem important for all sporting ac-
was no contraction of the CE before
stretched before recoiling as the force tions. One could suppose that an ath-
ground contact (37,38). In this case,
in the CE decreases (24). Moreover, lete participating in an endurance
the ground contact would initially serve
even in isokinetic strength measure- sport like cycling may have enough
to take out slack and only when all slack
ment, there is a dynamic interaction time to develop force. However,
is taken out, force could be applied to
between the CE and SEE (36). reducing muscle slack in endurance
accelerate the body. Fortunately, the CE
sports like cycling is important as
is activated before ground contact, and
cycling with a high cadence requires
STRATEGIES TO REDUCE MUSCLE therefore less slack has to be overcome
SLACK activation of the muscles before force
during the initial ground contact and
In the remaining part of this review, application on the pedals to prevent
more time can be used to accelerate
we will discuss the acute and long- a slow force development due to mus-
the body. In addition to the possibly cle slack. For example, counterintui-
term effects of 3 strategies that may beneficial effects on performance, co-
be used to reduce the influence of tively, the quadriceps have to be
contractions may also offer protection activated when the pedal is moving
muscle slack on high-intensity sport against injuries (34). For example, co-
performance: upward, so that muscle slack
contractions may result in a shorter is minimized when the downward
The use of pretension through mechanical delay and more rapid force
cocontractions. stroke is initiated. If the muscles are
development, which results in a faster not activated at the initiation of the
Using a CM. correction after an unexpected pertur-
Using external load. downward stroke, the result will be
bation. For example, an unexpected a brief moment where no force is
Furthermore, the way in which these 3 inversion in the ankle joint during the
strategies influence each other will be applied (69,86) and as a consequence,
ground contact of high-speed running cycling speed will slow down. This
outlined. This mutual influence is may be corrected faster when the
important in identifying training inter- problem increases as cadence rises.
muscles are pretensed because of the Activating (cocontracting) involved
ventions that have a positive influence preflex capabilities of the MTU.
on high-intensity sport performance. muscles earlier at higher pedaling fre-
However, there may be a trade-off quency will reduce EMD to a certain
between cocontractions and rapid extent. Sarre and Lepers (75) specu-
COCONTRACTIONS
force development. Milner et al. (66) lated that a strategy of even earlier
The first possibility for reducing mus-
found less muscle activation during activation of the muscles would per-
cle slack is creating pretension by
cocontractions compared with the haps further decrease the EMD, but
simultaneously contracting agonistic
sum of agonist and antagonist activa- because muscle activation costs
and antagonistic muscles around a joint
tion alone, which they attributed energy, it would also be detrimental
(i.e., coactivation and cocontraction).
to reciprocal inhibition. Therefore, to the efficiency of the movement.
Acute effects of cocontractions excessive cocontractions may hamper It is well possible that cocontractions
on muscle slack. By cocontracting rapid force development. In addition, can never completely take up all
muscles before joint motion starts, asynchronous cocontractions may muscle slack and hence, without the
a certain amount of slack is taken result in a loss of energy and a lower use of an external load providing
out of the MTU, the MTU is aligned, net force production. For example, a stretching force to the MTU, muscle
and possibly some of the compliance although muscles reached maximum slack will always limit performance to
is overcome. For example, after all torque faster after an unexpected some extent. For endurance sports,
slack is taken out of the MTU, fur- inversion of the ankle joint when the there will always be a trade-off
ther contraction of the CE may subjects used pretension compared between developing sufficient cocon-
stretch the SEE, which increases with no pretension (48), another tractions to minimize muscle slack
SEE stiffness and reduces the effect study among untrained individuals while simultaneously minimizing the
of SEE compliance. When the found that pretension before a ballistic associated energy costs.
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Influence of Muscle Slack on Sport Performance
If CM indeed negatively alters the think that cocontractions are not effective and requiring less muscle
capability to develop pretension, then important during sprinting. However, activation.
this will likely affect highly trained in- because the ground contact time, and
dividuals more than untrained or rec- hence time to apply force is very brief, EXTERNAL LOAD
reationally trained individuals because muscles have to develop pretension The use of external load such as bar-
untrained or recreationally trained in- before initial ground contact. This pre- bells, dumbbells, and elastic bands is
dividuals may experience more posi- tension is created partly by CM during a third possibility for reducing mus-
tive adaptations as a consequence of the flight phase. For example, knee cle slack.
training (e.g., increased neural drive extension may act as a CM to reduce
and cross-sectional area (16)), whereas the amount of muscle slack in the Acute effects of external load on mus-
these adaptations may already be well hamstrings and hip extension may act cle slack. Generally, when resistance is
developed in highly trained individuals. as a CM for the rectus femoris. These added to a movement such as a jump,
As a consequence, for untrained or rec- CM may not create enough stiffness slack will be taken up, the MTU will be
reationally trained individuals, poten- on ground contact, and therefore co- aligned, and the SEE will be stretched
tially negative adaptations resulting contractions in the involved muscles by the extra gravitational forces (20).
from CM training will be masked by need to be built into the movement This will reduce the influence of mus-
the positive adaptations. This masking pattern. A proper technical execution cle slack (Figure 6). If no external load
effect might lead to the incorrect con- of this tensing action before ground is used, or if the body weight is reduced
clusion that untrained individuals ben- contact is complex and requires a great by assisting the movement with elastic
efit from CM training also in the long deal of practice. Better sprinters are bands, the athlete needs to create more
run, while it actually may be detrimen- able to produce more force during cocontractions to reduce muscle slack.
tal to their long-term performance. the short ground contact (67,92,93), For example, several studies have
Indeed, hardly any athlete (untrained probably, at least partly as a result of shown that the addition of external
or highly trained) will benefit from less muscle slack and better stiffness. load to a CM jump resulted in a smaller
more muscle slack. Every athlete can The major problem in sprinting tech- amplitude of the CM, whereas a larger
perform a large CM, but all athletes nique may therefore be in the flight amplitude was observed when elastic
have to learn to minimize the ampli- phase rather than in the stance phase. bands assisted during the CM jump
tude and duration of the CM. (22,62,88,89). In contrast, other studies
The ground contact during middle-
Therefore, we recommend minimizing found larger or similar amplitude dur-
and long-distance running is longer
CM within training for those sporting ing the CM jump when external load
when compared with sprinting, but
movements where a CM will always was added compared with no load
still too short to build up maximum
have a negative influence on the per- (44,59). However, in one of these stud-
force. Therefore, during endurance
formance (e.g., a swim start, sprint ies (59), the participants were allowed
running, it is also important to create to use an arm swing during unloaded
start, and rugby scrum). During other cocontractions. However, there is
sporting actions, there may be plenty CM jump, which may explain the con-
again a trade-off between minimizing tradictory findings. Another possible
of time to perform a CM. For example,
muscle slack and minimizing energy reason for the larger CM with the addi-
not all jumps in volleyball are per-
costs. As a consequence, one might tion of external load is that a (too) fast
formed under time pressure, and dur-
expect elite runners to develop more downward movement resulted in
ing tennis a player can sometimes
cocontractions (i.e., more electromyo- a greater inertia which had to be over-
make a larger amplitude backswing.
graphic activity) when compared with come, and this forced the subjects to
However, minimizing CM during
nonelite runners just before ground perform a larger CM.
training for these activities is suggested
contact. However, elite Kenyan dis-
as making a bigger CM is never a prob-
tance runners have been found to have Long-term effect of external load on
lem and reducing CM always is.
less activity of both the agonist (gas- muscle slack. Numerous sport actions
trocnemius medialis) and antagonist have no or very low external resistance
Cocontractions and countermove- (tibialis anterior) when compared with that can reduce muscle slack at the start
ments in running. Sprinting is charac- national-level Japanese distance run- of CE contraction. For example, at the
terized by elastic muscle activity, ners 100 milliseconds before ground start of a stroke during rowing, the
which means that for instance, the contact and during the ground contact water provides only very low resistance
SEE in calf and other muscles is phase in which the SEE is stretched because it moves in the opposite direc-
stretched at foot strike. Foot strike (74). These, perhaps contradictory, tion of the blade. Therefore, claims that
effectively triggers a CM (i.e., ankle findings may be explained by a higher training with external load (i.e., tradi-
dorsiflexion), which decreases the SEE stiffness and greater isometric tional resistance training) will automat-
amount of muscle slack that needs to muscle actions, making retraction of ically improve high-intensity sport
be overcome, and therefore one may swing leg before ground contact more performance should be questioned.
Because the addition of external load to amplitude or duration following train- Nevertheless, the statement “strength
a movement may decrease muscle ing with external load. training makes athletes slower” could
slack, it may not teach the athlete to The small amount of indirect evi- very well be based on the intuitive feel-
develop proper pretension by cocon- dence leads to the careful conclusion ing that (incorrect and too much)
tracting muscles. This reasoning also that the use of external load may neg- strength training may increase muscle
lacks direct evidence but some indirect atively impact on the ability to slack and as a consequence makes the
evidence supports it. It is possible that develop pretension. However, it athlete slower. In addition, “athleti-
athletes become accustomed to exter- should be noted that resistance train- cism” could very well encompass the
nal load taking up the muscle slack ing and CM (or loaded jump squats) capability to move with a minimum
and as a consequence, the athletes cre- were combined in all studies amount of muscle slack and the capa-
ate fewer cocontractions during a CM (14,15,26,46,63,64), and therefore the bility to rapidly develop force.
jump, and this will cause the amplitude potentially negative effect of external
of the CM to increase. However, stud- load on the ability to develop preten- LACK OF CLARITY IN SCIENTIFIC
ies investigating the effect of external sion may have been caused by the TERMINOLOGY
load on the amplitude of the CM dur- CM. In addition, changes in the CM In the scientific literature, it is not
ing a CM jump show inconsistent re- amplitude do not necessarily indicate always properly defined what a con-
sults. This may be a consequence of changes in actual sporting perfor- cept means. A good example of this is
differences in the used training protocol mance. For example, it is possible that the concept of the “stretch-shortening
and/or the training status of the resistance training results in a smaller cycle” (SSC). Often, the SSC is simply
participants. CM, but still negatively impacts on described as a stretch of the muscle
Several studies among recreationally sporting movements without a CM followed by a shortening. However, it
trained individuals found an increased because both CM and external load is not described which components of
CM amplitude following training with reduce muscle slack, whereas muscle the muscle stretch and shorten. This
external load (14,63,64), although the slack cannot be reduced by a CM or can lead to wrong interpretations. For
increase in the CM amplitude was not external load during most sporting example, it is often assumed that there is
always the largest in the group training movements. Therefore, future an eccentric action of the CE of the leg
with external load. Other studies research should investigate the sepa- muscles during the downward move-
among recreationally trained individu- rate effects of external load and CMs ment of the CM jump. Although some
als (15,46) or elite female rugby players on actual sport performance using studies show the CE to lengthen during
(26) did not find increases in CM highly trained individuals. the downward movement (23,24), other
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Influence of Muscle Slack on Sport Performance
studies show the CE to shorten (55) or appropriate strategy to reduce muscle Has the resistance used in training
work isometrically (50). Therefore, the slack because of the extra time require- and testing been described with suf-
downward movement does not neces- ments associated with performing ficient detail?
sarily present an eccentric action of the a CM and because of the probable In the near future, the capability to
CE. Perhaps only during slowly exe- increase in resultant muscle slack as rapidly develop force may prove to
cuted submaximal and large amplitude a result of the reduced capability to be an important battlefield for discus-
CM jumps, the CE lengthens, whereas create cocontractions. Using external sions on training transfer between the
it works isometrically or concentrically load in training is also an inefficient more classic “mechanistic” approach
during faster maximum effort and small strategy for improving the rapid force and a more motor control-based
amplitude jumps. Future research development for those sporting activi- approach to resistance training.
should therefore refer to the downward ties that are performed without signif-
and upward phases rather than the icant external load. The effect of Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding:
eccentric and concentric phases of the resistance training on muscle slack will The authors report no conflicts of interest
CM jump. be especially problematic in highly and no source of funding.
Another probably incorrect assump- trained individuals because most posi-
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
tion is that during sprinting, the knee tive adaptations may already be well
developed. The only effective direct The authors thank Kenneth Meijer for
extension of the front leg during the his comments on a preliminary version
flight phase causes an eccentric action way to reduce muscle slack in move-
ments performed against low resis- of the manuscript and Craig Ranson
of the CE of the hamstrings. As a con- for his feedback on the final version
sequence, several researchers and tance may be through creating
of the manuscript.
strength and conditioning professio- pretension by cocontractions. An
nals use exercises thought to produce effective and efficient technique of co-
an eccentric muscle action (e.g., the contractions may be complex from
Bas Van
Nordic hamstring exercise) as a core a coordinative point of view and there-
Hooren is an
exercise for “functional” strengthening fore requires a great deal of practice.
independent
of the hamstrings. However, there is an For the strength and conditioning pro- strength and
increasing body of evidence suggesting fessional, it is important to examine conditioning spe-
that there is no eccentric action, but which aspects of high-intensity perfor- cialist and
rather an isometric action of the CE mance require improvement. For received his MSc
during the swing phase in high-speed highly trained individuals, it is impor- degree in Human
running (27–30). The knee extension tant, when using external loads during Movement Scien-
during the swing phase will first take training, to search for a balance ces at Maastricht
slack out of the MTU, align the MTU, between the possible negative effects University.
and then stretch the SEE before the on the capability to create pretension
SEE recoils. Functional training of and the positive effects such as an
the hamstrings should therefore not increased motor unit firing frequency, Frans Bosch is
be done through eccentric training, motor unit synchronization, and SEE a lecturer at
but in an elastic-isometric way, reflect- stiffness. Fontys Univer-
ing hamstring functioning during sity of Applied
Scientific research is unaware of the
sprinting. Sciences and an
mechanisms of muscle slack and the
elite sport
CONCLUSION AND PRACTICAL influence of CM and external load
consultant.
APPLICATIONS during the exercises and activities
The time to develop force is limited in described above. Also the difference
most high-intensity sporting actions. in training experience between
We propose the initial part of muscle untrained/poorly trained athletes
slack, which is the delay between and highly trained individuals are
contraction of the muscle fibers and often not taken into account when
the start of SEE stretching as an drawing conclusions. Therefore, REFERENCES
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