Postural control after a strenuous treadmill exercise

The effect of a strenuous treadmill exercise on body stability and the mechanisms associated with it have been studied with two different experimental protocols. The former investigation was based on stabilometric and metabolic measurements performed in basal condition and after a strenuous treadmill exercise whilst the latter dealt with the study of the early postural response to a 3 s-bilateral soleus muscle vibration after the strenuous exercise. Our exercise protocol was able to induce an important generalized metabolic fatigue, as assessed by the obtained peak values in the measured metabolic parameters, and resulting in a short-lasting body destabilization. A linear relationship between sway path and oxygen uptake was found. Thus, the short duration of body instability could be likely due to the quite rapid recovery of oxygen uptake. Further, the fatigue-induced body instability did not associate with changes in the early postural response to soleus muscle vibration. The present study cannot rule out the possibility that further central and/or peripheral mechanisms, influencing the postural control, may play a role in the fatigue-induced changes in body sway. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.