A theoretical analysis of preferred pedaling rate selection in endurance cycling

One objective of this study was to investigate whether neuromuscular quanti ties were associated with preferred pedaling rate selection during submaxim al steady-state cycling from a theoretical perspective using a musculoskele tal model with an optimal control analysis. Specific neuromuscular quantiti es of interest were the individual muscle activation, force, stress and end urance. To achieve this objective, a forward dynamic model of cycling and o ptimization framework were used to simulate pedaling at three different rat es of 75, 90 and 105 rpm at 265 W. The pedaling simulations were produced b y optimizing the individual muscle excitation timing and magnitude to repro duce experimentally collected data. The results from these pedaling simulat ions indicated that all neuromuscular quantities were minimized at 90 rpm w hen summed across muscles. In the context of endurance cycling, these resul ts suggest that minimizing neuromuscular fatigue is an important mechanism in pedaling rate selection. A second objective was to determine whether any of these quantities could be used to predict the preferred pedaling rate. By using the quantities with the strongest quadratic trends as the performa nce criterion to be minimized in an optimal control analysis, these quantit ies were analyzed to assess whether they could be further minimized at 90 r pm and produce normal pedaling mechanics. The results showed that both the integrated muscle activation and average endurance summed across all muscle s could be further minimized at 90 rpm indicating that these quantities can not be used individually to predict preferred pedaling rates. (C) 1999 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.