MUSCLE ACTIVITY OF THREE SUBJECTS DIFFERING IN WEIGHT AND HEIGHT DURING A VERTICAL JUMP

Abstract

Introduction: The first measurement was done to evaluate changes of potentials of surface electromyography with different locations of electrode sites and different resistors between the electrodes. The objective of the second was to investigate the activity of muscles in their stimulation sequence, the quantitative participation of the single muscle and cinematic study of vertical jumps. This work is part of a project to determine the internal forces of the human motional apparatus with an anatomical model of muscles. Methods: For each measurement we chose a Noraxon EMG, ECG electrodes from Medicotest, and the electrodes were placed following the description of D.A. Winter. At first we chose the M. gastro. med., M. gastro. lat., and M. soleus of male subject and did a measurement while the subject moved ten times from a ‘standing at attention’ posture to standing on the tips of his toes with a resistor between the electrodes higher than 60 Ohm and one with a resistor lower than 5 Ohm. Then we moved the electrodes 2 cm and 4 cm in the vertical and horizontal directions (resistor of lower than 5 Ohm). Secondly, we chose eight muscles (M. glut. max., M. semitend., M. biceps femoris, M. rectus femoris, M. vastus lat., M. vastus med., M. gastro. med., M. soleus) of three male subjects differing in weight and height and did the measurements while the subjects jumped ten times from a squatting position on a force plate, filmed by a high-speed camera. Results: The measurements with a 60 Ohm resistor and a 5 Ohm resistor differed, as well as the measurements with different locations of electrode sites. The second measurements showed that the M. gas. med. seemed to be the muscle with the highest response, followed by the M. sol. The M. vast. med., M. vast. lat., M. bic. fem. and M. rec. fem. had the same type of reaction. In one case the M. glut. max. seemed to be important while jumping. In an second case the M. semit. showed a high response. The muscles of the tallest subject had the longest activity, and the muscles of the shortest one had the shortest activity. The timedependent angles of knee, hip and foot joints of every subject were nearly identical. Like the EMG, the acceleration phases of the tallest subject took the longest time, while the acceleration phase of the shortest subject took the least time. Conclusions: Firstly, it is possible to see how important the placement and resistor of the electrodes is. Secondly, there is a possible relationship between the beginning of the activity of the muscles and the size of the subjects, as well as a correlation of the angles and the size of the subjects. This effect should be considered in using such calculations of the internal forces of the human motional apparatus in the development of protheses and in sports science.