Recovery after muscular fatigue in hemiparesis.

Setchenov showed in 1903 that the amount of work he could perform with his right arm after a pause, during which he had worked with his nonfatigued left arm was greater than if he had rested passively between bouts. Asmussen and Mazin have shown that recuperation after local muscle fatigue was influenced by a central nervous factor. In this paper 10 stroke patients were examined and the muscular activity of the deltoid was measured by means of EMG. The intact deltoid behaved according to Setchenov's observation. In 4 patients the diverting activity did not have any beneficial effect on the paretic muscle. It is assumed that in some of the stroke patients the brain damage affects the facilitatory centers which are needed for the recuperation after muscular fatigue.

McArdle's syndrome: the reaction to a fat-rich diet.

The effect of a diet enriched with fats on the muscle performance of a patient with McArdle's syndrome was studied. The tolerance to physical activity was studied during exercise (ergometric examination) and by sustained abduction to 90 degrees of the deltoid muscle, both after a three-day period on a normal diet and after a three-day period on a fat-rich diet. After the first period a woody spasm of the deltoid muscle was found which lasted several days. After a period on fat-rich diet the patient's physical fitness was increased and the recovery period after the acute load was shorter. Moreover, no induration of the deltoid muscle was observed after the sustained abduction to 90 degrees. It is argued that maximal strength is not improved by a fat-rich diet but tolerance to submaximal loads is increased by such treatment and recovery from non-lactate-produced muscle discomfort is hastened.