Jc. Agre et al., SUBJECTIVE RECOVERY-TIME AFTER EXHAUSTING MUSCULAR-ACTIVITY IN POSTPOLIO AND CONTROL SUBJECTS, American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation, 77(2), 1998, pp. 140-144
The purpose of this study was to determine whether the time to subject
ively fully recover after the performance of exhausting muscular exerc
ise was greater in unstable postpolio as compared with stable postpoli
o or control subjects. Twenty-five unstable (those complaining of decl
ining muscle strength) postpolio, 16 stable (those denying declining m
uscle strength) postpolio, and 25 control subjects performed an isomet
ric contraction of the knee extensor (quadriceps femoris) musculature
at 40% of maximal torque until they were no longer able to do so. Five
-second maximal effort contractions were made every 30 s through 2 min
after the time of failure was reached and then at 1-min intervals thr
ough 10 min after failure was reached. Subjects reported the duration
of time required to subjectively fully recover from this activity. Cho
ices of ''less than 1 day,'' ''1 day,'' ''2 days,'' etc., up to ''grea
ter than 2 wk'' were given to the subjects for their response. Analysi
s was by nonparametric ANOVA and appropriate post hoc comparison proce
dures. Unstable postpolio subjects reported a greater recovery time th
an either the stable postpolio or control subjects (mean +/- SD of 2.6
+/- 3.0 days, 0.6 +/- 1.0 days, and 0.7 +/- 1.1 days, respectively, P
< 0.05). Thus, the reported recovery time from exhausting isometric m
uscular exercise was bound to be greater in unstable postpolio subject
s than stable postpolio or control subjects. The cause for this findin
g is unknown and requires further investigation.