Effects of localized muscle fatigue on upper body posture and postural variability in a repetitive pointing task

How localized fatigue at different muscles affects whole-body coordination during a repetitive task is poorly understood. We studied 17 participants who completed a repetitive task before and after fatigue was induced at either shoulder, elbow or lower back. Results show that fatigue location differentially affected postural adaptations, and that only shoulder fatigue affected posture and postural variability in the main, anterior-posterior direction.