Muscle Fatigue - Is It All In Your Head?

Researchers in Zurich think it is, in part. When it comes to endurance training (or maybe even endurance bouting in a tournament situation) many of us have been able to use our heads to focus and find physical resources to go on that we didn't know we had.

"The extent to which we are able to activate our muscles voluntarily depends on motivation and will power or the physical condition and level of fatigue of the muscles, for instance. The latter particularly leads to noticeable and measurable performance impairments. For a long time, the research on muscle fatigue was largely confined to changes in the muscle itself. Now, a joint research project between the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich has shifted the focus to brain research. Headed by neuro-psychologist Kai Lutz from the University of Zurich in collaboration with Urs Boutellier from the Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport at ETH Zurich, the researchers discovered neuronal processes for the first time that are responsible for reducing muscle activity during muscle-fatiguing exercise."

Read the full article and link the research here.