TETANUS ON FROG MUSCLE

TETANUS

Describe how the isolated muscle behaved as the stimulus interval

was further decreased

Define tetanus. At which stimulus interval did you observe tetanus?

Explain the mechanism behind this phenomenon

What what point of time did the muscle begin to fatigue?

near maximum contractile force

What effect does varying the stimulation frequency have on contractile

force?
force increased
With increasing frequency of stimulation, ther is less and less time for the
muscle fiber to relax between stimuli, and eventually contractions fuse and
what is seen?
tetanus (long smooth contraction)

Muscle fatigue is a decreased capacity to perform a physical action. Fatigue

causes a decline in performance and a decrease in your ability to exert force.
Maximum strength is the greatest force you can exert in a single contraction.
Once your muscles begin to fatigue, maximum strength declines. The muscle
may continue to contract but not at the highest level possible.

According to a report published in the “Journal of Physiology” in 2008, muscle

fatigue probably results from a variety of causes acting in concert. Among
the possible factors noted in this article were changes in blood flow to the
muscle, oxygenation of the muscle, a change in the electrical activity in the
muscle, electrolyte changes, age of the study participants, gender of the
study participants and the buildup of metabolic byproducts.

When your muscles fatigue, your maximum strength decreases. One study
reported in the January 2011 issue of “Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy,
Rehabilitation, Therapy and Technology” found that muscle fatigue in
shoulder muscles resulted in a 17-percent decrease in maximum strength.
Researchers also found that the total amount of work that study participants
were able to perform decreased by 42 percent during the last third of the
testing process.

An association between fatigue and muscle inefficiency during high-intensity

exercise in humans is intuitive, and the two phenomena seem to be strictly
intertwined both during incremental and constant power exercise protocols.
Muscle fatigue and reduced efficiency share several common mechanisms or
denominators, such as a decreased metabolic stability, reflected in the
accumulation of muscle metabolites and the decrease in free energy from
ATP hydrolysis, O2 and substrate availability, impaired function of ATPases
including myosin and SERCA, increased glycolytic flux and pH changes,
increased temperature and ROS production, altered excitability of
sarcolemmal Na+ /K+ pump, and motor unit recruitment patterns (Fig. 4).
The resulting impairment of exercise tolerance is relevant in terms of
performance during everyday life (both in healthy subjects and in patients)
as well as during sporting activities. However, the identification of a cause-
effect relationship between muscle fatigue and decreased efficiency during
exercise above criti

Describe how the isolated muscle behaved with high frequency

stimulation?

At what time did your muscle start to fatigue? Comment on the

percentage decrease in contraction force by the end of experiment

Provide a possible mechanism for why the muscle was unable to

maintain a prolonged contraction?
steady levels of tension generated by individual muscle fibers stimulated
electrically at high frequency.