Abstract
Involuntary neuromechanical muscle contractile properties, especially of the extensor muscles and knee joint flexors as the largest muscle groups of the caudal part of the body, play an important role in both everyday movement and sport. Based on these data we can obtain important information on the functional properties of muscles. The basic means of evaluation of the functional involuntary neuromechanical muscles contractile properties is the non-invasive tensiomyographic method (TMG). The aim of this study was to determine the differences between the involuntary neuromechanical contractile properties of the thigh muscles measured using the TMG method on a sample of male athletes and non-athletes. The sample of participants was made up of 17 athletes and 10 non-athletes. By applying the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and the t-test, we achieved results which indicate that of the overall 30 variables, a difference was determined among 13 of them. Most of the differences were determined for the extensor muscles of the right knee, especially of the rectus femoris muscle. It was also shown that in addition to the main knee joint extensor muscle (rectus femoris) the main knee joint flexor muscle (biceps femoris) also takes part in the definition of the difference between athletes and non-athletes. The results have shown that the following variables: contraction time (Tc) and delay contraction time (Td) are the functional parameters for which the highest difference between athletes and non-athletes were determined (from t = -2.284, p < 0.05 for the vastus lateralis of the right leg to t = -4.018, p < 0.01 for the rectus femoris of the left leg). These results have shown that it is possible to determine the differences in the functional involuntary neuromechanical contractile properties of the thigh muscles among trained and untrained individuals using the tensiomyographic method, but at the same time indicated that these differences were very specific since they refer only to certain properties.
Highlights
Regular physical exercise has a positive in uence on the entire anthropological status of men (Merom, Bauman, & Ford, 2004; Garber et al, 2011)
Testing procedure e measuring of functional involuntary neuromechanical muscle contractile properties was carried out using the tensiomyographic method (TMG-BMC Ltd, Ljubljana). e testing was carried out on ve muscles: rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), biceps femoris (BF) and semitendinosus (SM)
Based on the obtained results we can conclude that of the 30 variables which were studied in the course of this research, a di erence was determined for as many as 13 variables of the involuntary functional neuromechanical contractile properties of the thigh muscle among male athletes and non-athletes. ese results have indicated that with the application of the tensiomyographic method it was possible to determine the di erences in the neuromechanical contractile properties of the thigh muscle among trained and untrained males, but at the same time the results have shown that these di erences are very speci c since they refer to only certain characteristics and certain muscle groups
Summary
Regular physical exercise has a positive in uence on the entire anthropological status of men (Merom, Bauman, & Ford, 2004; Garber et al, 2011). It has been shown that there are di erences in anthropological abilities and properties between athletes and non-athletes. One of the new technologies, that is, means of evaluating involuntary functional neuromechanical muscle contractile properties is the tensiomyographic method. Tensiomyography (TMG) is a non-invasive method which is easy to use, which can evaluate involuntary functional neuromechanical muscle contractile properties. It is based on the evaluation of muscle contractile properties in isometric conditions, based on changes in the position of the muscle belly caused by electric impulses (Valenčič, & Knez, 1997). Numerous studies have con rmed the validity and reliability of tensiomyography as a method (Tous-Fajardo et al, 2010; Šimunič, 2012; Ditroilo, Smith, Fairweather, & Hunter, 2013). e tensiomyographic method can be used to measure the fol-
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