Unusual exercises can lead to muscle damage that persists for a few days reducing performance ability due to fatigue onset. Moreover, intramuscular acidity increase can limit the cell metabolism in the process of producing work. Therefore, the objective of this research was to analyze the influence of neuromuscular fatigue and metabolic acidity in the 400 m race. The selected sample consisted of 20 sedentary individuals, aged between 18 and 35 years. They were submitted to the following protocols: treadmill incremental test for determination of VO2max; aerobic and anaerobic threshold; 400m race test (400/R); plyometric activity with active/passive rest followed by 400m race immediately after (400/Post) and 24 hours after the plyometric activity (400/24h). The obtained results show that when the active and passive groups are compared, they do not show significant difference in 400/Post performance, but this time was longer for both groups when compared with the 400/R. Nevertheless, the 400/24h was not significantly different when compared with the 400/R to both groups. It was concluded that regardless of the kind of recovery, active or passive, the performance reduction in a 400-meter race after plyometric activity seems to occur by neuromuscular mechanisms that lead to fatigue and not to metabolic limitations.
neuromuscular fatigue; anaerobic performance; eccentric activity
