Smith ICH, Newham DJ. Fatigue and functional performance of human biceps muscle following concentric or eccentric contractions. J Appl Physiol 102: 207-213, 2007. First published September 21, 2006; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00571.2006.-A long-lasting fatigue was measured in human biceps muscle, following 40 maximal isokinetic concentric or eccentric contractions of the forearm, as the response to single-shock stimuli every minute for 4 h. This protocol allowed new observations on the early time course of long-lasting fatigue. Concentric contractions induced a novel progressive decline to 30.2% (SE 7.8, n ϭ 7) of control at 23 min with complete recovery by 120 min. Eccentric contractions lead initially to a smaller force reduction of similar time course followed by a slower decline to 40.0% (SE 5.1, n ϭ 7) control at 120 min with recovery less than half complete at 4 h. A 50-Hz test stimuli overcame both fatigues, identifying low-frequency fatigue. EMG recordings from the biceps muscle showed moderate (Ͻ20%) changes during the fatigue. A visual-tracking task showed no decrement in performance at the time of maximal fatigue of the single-shock response. Because the eccentric contractions have a similar activation, a larger force, but much smaller metabolic usage than concentric contractions, it is concluded that the initial decline is related to the effects of metabolites, whereas the slower phase after eccentric contractions is associated with higher mechanical stress. skeletal muscle; motor control; skill PERIPHERAL MUSCLE FATIGUE can be both short term, with a simultaneous recovery of force and phosphocreatine largely complete within 1 min (36, 37), and long-lasting, remaining for at least 0.5 h after exercise (13). This later failure to develop tension is seen most clearly using low-frequency test stimuli, thus the nomenclature of low-frequency fatigue (19). It remains long after metabolic recovery and is associated with reduced calcium release per action potential (8, 9). In addition, it has long been recognized that high-intensity eccentric contractions give rise to further force reduction that lasts several days and is associated with muscle damage (30,29,35), although the mechanisms for the initial decline in force are still uncertain (2, 31). In this paper, which studies force reduction for up to 4 h after brief but intense fatiguing concentric or eccentric exercise, we refer to the force reduction by either protocol as fatigue. The time scale of the development of long-lasting fatigue remains unclear because it has been experimentally lost either by using a long period of fatiguing exercise or through infrequent test measurements of the degree of fatigue. Normally, the fatigue is shown as having developed by the first measurement point, leading to the assumption that it develops during the fatiguing exercise. However, it was recently found that, in response to short maximal isometric contractions, low-frequency fatigue developed between 3 and 9 min after the exercise (11). Thus, to achieve a faster time...