Figure 1. An example of fatigue-related slowing of muscle relaxation rate and lengthening of the silent period recorded from a single subject during a sustained 2 min MVC.

Responses were obtained to single transcranial magnetic stimulation during a 2 min sustained maximal effort. Torque responses demonstrate the progressive fatigue-related slowing of muscle relaxation. Normalised to the pre-stimulus torque to account for the loss of maximal torque production, the peak rate of relaxation slowed from −10.5 s⁻¹ to −5.3 s⁻¹ between 2 and 61 s. EMG responses demonstrate the progressive lengthening of the silent period (see Fig. 3 of McNeil et al. 2009 for group data). Traces were collected during the control experiment reported in McNeil et al. (2009).