Abstract
PREDICTING MAXIMAL MUSCLE FORCE VIA THE INTERPOLATED TWITCH J.J. Dowling, P. Ljucovic and D.M. Andrews’ McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. ‘University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The purposes of this study were to examine the effect of signal averaging at improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the interpolated twitch technique and to examine the usefulness of the technique at predicting maximum muscle force generation capacity. Subjects performed isometric elbow flexion contractions that ranged from 10 to 100% of the MVC with interpolated twitches via maximal electrical stimulation. Ten twitch files for each trial were signal averaged so that the randomness of background tremor was reduced. The extra force was determined as the difference between the baseline and the peak force following the stimulation. With this technique, extra force was evident at the maximum effort level for all subjects. When the extra force was plotted as a function of voluntary effort it declined in a nonlinear manner. Unlike the findings of previous investigators, the extrapolation of these results to a force level where no extra force would be detected would be much greater than the maximum voluntary effort. The nonlinear nature of the decrease in extra force and the variability between subjects, however, makes extrapolation to maximum force capacity very speculative.
Published Version
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