CALIBRATION OF MUSCLE FORCE vs. ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC ACTIVITY DURING ISOMETRIC CONTRACTIONS OF ARM, LEG, AND NECK MUSCLES

摘要

The relationship between muscle force and myoelectric activity has been studied by various investigators. A major problem in predicting muscle force in vivo is the difficulty in determining the relationship between electromyographic (EMG) data and the level of muscle activation. EMGs indicate how strongly the muscles contract to generate the exerted forces. This study was designed to determine the relationship between the force exerted by the muscle/muscle group and the measured EMG activity. It is well known that for most muscles, this relationship is nonlinear, but the reasons for the nonlinearities are not understood. The objective of this study was to obtain the EMG-muscle force curves for seven different muscle groups during isometric exertions. The shape of these curves varies a great deal from one muscle group to another, but, for any particular muscle group, most of the subjects had similar curves.