AbstractsMedical & Health Science

Maximising strength and neurological adaptations to resistance training has long been sought to improve athletic performance and enhance clinical rehabilitation functional outcomes. In recent years, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) have been applied to investigate changes in the central nervous system (CNS). Conventional resistance training programmes consist of shortening and lengthening muscle contractions and have been shown to have uniquely different motor control strategies; how this neurological control is modified during specific muscle contraction resistance training is unknown. Additionally, understanding the detraining process will assist in designing tapers for elite athletes and improve our knowledge of detraining and inactivity in other populations. The overall aim of the thesis was to determine the TMS and PNS responses to, and following, shortening and lengthening resistance exercise and subsequent detraining.