Neuromuscular Fatigue and Metabolic Stress during the 15 Minutes of Rest after Carrying Out a Bench Press Exercise Protocol

Abstract

Velocity loss can help to determine neuromuscular fatigue after carrying out an exercise protocol with a load that is initially moved at a mean propulsive velocity of 1 m·s ¿1 . Few studies have measured the time required to recover the pre-exercise velocity values after performing an exercise, with the aim of knowing the optimal recovery times. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse muscular fatigue and metabolic stress during the 15 min that follow the execution of a bench press exercise protocol. The results show that mean propulsive velocity was recovered from minute 10 of rest; however, the blood lactate levels were still high (>5 mmol·L ¿1 ). Therefore, although the capacity to apply a maximum mean propulsive velocity peak was recovered, the same could not be said for the capacity to maintain those strength levels to reproduce another exercise protocol involving the same muscle groups. Moreover, analysing the velocities and metabolic stress before and after the exercise protocol by different strength level groups, similar results were obtained.