PRELIMINARY STUDY OF TRAINING COMPONENTS ON SENSORIMOTOR SYSTEM IN TAI CHI

Authors

  • Xu Dongqing
  • Jinxian Li
  • Youlian Hong
  • Mao Dewei
  • Chan Kaiming

Keywords:

Tai Chi, sensorimotor system, proprioception, motion analysis, EMG

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify if Tai Chi (TC) movements are full with the training components on sensorimotor system by movement kinematics and electromyography (EMG) analysis. Two TC masters performed a typical TC movement "brush knees and twist steps" twice. Motion analysis showed that joint angles (ankles, knees and hips) of eight different postures, height and velocity of center of gravity (C.G.) of the whole movement had no significant difference in two trials. The results indicated that the TC masters had good awareness of joint position and movement and spatial position sense. Moreover, EMG analysis showed that muscles activated from full relaxation to vigorous contraction and the similar EMG patterns of each muscle in two trials suggested the good training effect of TC on muscle coordinative contraction.

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Equipment / Instrumentation