MUSCLE FATIGUE

Effects of 5 Hour Energy on Muscle Fatigue



Abstract

The energy supplement, 5 hour energy, is marketed as being a product that will boost your energy without the crash that other energy drinks have. In this experiment, the effects of 5 hour energy on muscle fatigue were observed by use of dynamometer, which measures the power produced by the muscular contraction (lab manual). A total of eight subjects were tested, four being female and four being male, ages ranging from 20-25. A control consisted of having one member from each gender omit from taking a 5HE various results were concluded from this experiment such as: there wasn't significant difference within the clench force in either gender and there was a significant time difference to fatigue in only females. Further research that can be conducted is to gather a larger sample size for both the control and experimental to see whether this trend is in fact true.

Effects of 5 Hour Energy on Muscle Fatigue

Introduction

One female and one male were placed in the control group; this group did not consume 5 hour energy. The remaining six subjects were in the experiment group where the subjects consumed an entire “shot” of 5 hour energy. If 5 hour energy (5HE) boosts energy, then muscle fatigue will be delayed.

Literature Review

Energy Metabolism

During contraction energy is mostly consumed by the molecular motors, the myosin heads or cross-bridges, and by ion pumps, mainly the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ pumps. The relative proportion of energy required by the cross-bridges and by the SR Ca2+ pumps depends on the type of contraction (e.g. continuous vs. short repeated contractions, and maximal vs. submaximal) and it is currently debated whether the cross-bridges or the SR Ca2+ pumps are the major energy consumers under physiological conditions.

The immediate energy source during muscle contraction is ATP. The intracellular store of ATP is small (5-6 mM) and if the muscle was fully activated, the store would be depleted within 2 s. Hence other metabolic pathways must be activated to avoid ATP depletion. These can be divided into anaerobic and aerobic pathways, of which the former are faster and therefore dominate during high-intensity physical activity of short duration whereas the latter predominate during prolonged submaximal exercise.

As muscle fatigue is an ongoing process during muscle activities rather than a failure at a time point, it is important to monitor the temporal changes of the physiological variables as the fatigue develops. The SEMG signal, which contains the features of the neuromuscular activation associated with the muscle contraction, has been considered as an objective tool to evaluate muscle fatigue non-invasively. Alternative signals with the potential to tackle these challenges to SEMG are in demand and are being explored in the related fields. For example, mechanomyography (MMG), which detects the sound or vibration generated by muscles during contraction, and near-infrared spectroscopy have been used for the assessment of muscle fatigue (Kimura, 2004).

Since early 1990s, sonography has been used to measure the changes in muscle thickness, muscle fiber pennation angle, muscle fascicle length, and muscle cross-sectional area during ...