Polyacrylonitrile(PAN)-based carbon fiber tows were heat-treated by the internal resistance heating method under the certain load. To consider the strain behavior of the fiber tows during heat-treatments, 1200~$2200^{circ}C$, strain changes of those were measured. It was observed that the larger longitudinal strain was induced under the larger stretching stress. The changes in the strain are different from the temperature regions below and above $1700^{circ}C$. Obtained apparent activation energies under the stretching stresses of 70 and 322 MPa from time-strain curves were 67.46 and 52.27kJ$mol^{-1}$, respectively. Therefore, it was known that the larger stretching stresses effectively reduce the apparent activation energy of the fiber structure development of the fiber tows.