ANALYSIS OF COMBINED EMG AND JOINT ANGULAR VELOCITY FOR THE EVALUATION OF ECCENTRIC/CONCENTRIC CONTRACTION IN SKIING

Abstract

The purpose of this study was the introduction of a method combining the joint angular velocity and the EMG signals for a biomechanical evaluation of the eccentric/concentric contraction patterns of major muscles used in alpine skiing. The adopted approach was applied to three types of slalom courses: racing, training and recreational slaloms. The introduction of a pseudo-Muscular-Work allowed to define a Ratio between Eccentric and Concentric muscular activation states that, compared to simple on-off timing criteria, resulted to reveal more consistently the amount of eccentric muscle mechanical work.