To establish whether the MVC testing that was of the experimental protocal contributed to the experimental protocol contributed to force gains, a control group was usd. These subjects performed MVCs 6 times per day for 19 day to match the experimental group, who performed 3 MVCs before each stimulation session and 3 MVCs after each stimulation session. No increase in force was produced. Although this finding demonstrates that the force gains were not a result of performing repetitive MVCs, the control group does not control for a placebo response, because there is no way the controls could be unaware of the presence or absence of electrical stimulation. Given that few of the later studies by a variety of authors showed such large force gains with stimulation sessions so few and short, we guestion whether the extreme motivation for the young Russian athletes was a factor in the force gains.possibly the age of the subjects had a bearing on the outcome.other studies (reviewed by Selkowitz) used subjects who were more physically mature and less motivated.
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