0000000000083277
AUTHOR
Jukka T. Viitasalo
showing 23 related works from this author
Muscle strength in male athletes aged 70-81 years and a population sample.
1991
Muscle strength characteristics of different muscle groups were studied in active male strength-trained (ST, n = 14), speed-trained (SP, n = 16), and endurance-trained (EN, n = 67) athletes aged between 70 and 81 years. A population sample of similar age (n = 42) served as a control group. The isometric forces for hand grip, arm flexion, knee extension, trunk extension, and trunk flexion were higher for the athletes than the controls and higher for the ST than EN group. The SP athletes showed higher values in knee extension and trunk flexion than the EN group. When the isometric muscle forces were related to lean body mass, significant differences still existed between the athletes and cont…
Vertical jumping height and horizontal overhead throwing velocity in young male athletes
1992
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of calendar and skeletal age, anthropometric dimensions, training history and their interactions on vertical jumping height and horizontal overhead throwing velocity in a cross-section of 318 young male athletes (age range 9-16 years) participating in cross-country skiing (n = 70), basketball (n = 40), apparatus gymnastics (n = 19), ice hockey (n = 50), track and field (n = 89) and wrestling (n = 50). Vertical jumping height was measured with four different loads held on the shoulders and then interpolated for loads representing 0 and 40% body mass. Horizontal overhead throwing velocity using both hands was determined for seven balls of d…
Signal characteristics of EMG during fatigue
1977
Electromyographic (EMG) activity of m. rectus femoris muscle was registered from young male and female subjects during maintained isometric knee extension at 60% of maximal voluntary contraction. The following EMG parameters were analyzed for the entire fatigue time: integrated EMG (IEMG), averaged motor unit potential (AMUP) and power spectral density function (PSDF). The results indicated a slight but continuous rise of IEMG during the fatigue period. AMUP showed sensitivity to fatigue with increase in amplitude, rise time, and number of spikes counted. PSDF was also easily affected by fatigue so that the total power density curve was shifted towards lower frequencies with a high frequenc…
Changes in motor unit activity and metabolism in human skeletal muscle during and after repeated eccentric and concentric contractions.
1977
This study was designed to investigate electromyographic (EMG), muscle glycogen and blood lactate changes in quadriceps muscle group during repeated 40 maximal eccentric and concentric contractions, and to follow the recovery in EMG, muscle glycogen and serum creatine kinase values during a 4 day period following the work test. The subjects were normal males and the test order (eccentric or concentric) was randomly selected. The results indicated first, that the EMG parameters (IEMG, AMUP), muscle glycogen and blood lactate changed in a similar manner during the both fatigue loads. Despite the high tension work no selective depletion of glycogen could be observed in the slow or fast twitch …
Combined effect of elastic energy and myoelectrical potentiation during stretch-shortening cycle exercise.
1982
In addition to the utilization of muscle's elastic energy enhancement of performance in exercise involving stretch-shortening cycle might be also due to simultaneous increase of myoelectrical activity. This hypothesis was tested by examining three athletes during jumping exercise on force-platform. Vertical jumps were performed with and without preliminary counter-movement, and the jumps were called counter-movement jump (CMJ) and squatting jump (SJ), respectively. In both conditions several jumps were performed also with extra loads on the shoulders (15–220% of b. wt.). Additional droppingjumps (DJ) were executed from different heights (20–100 cm). During jumping exercise myoelectrical act…
Mechanical jumping power in young athletes.
1987
Mechanical jumping power was determined for 286 young male athletes representing six sports events and ranging in calendar and skeletal ages from 8.8 to 17.1 and from 7.8 to 18.1 years, respectively. The subjects performed successive maximal vertical jumps on a contact mat for 30 s. The number of jumps and their cumulative flight time after 15 and 30 s were used for calculations of mechanical power. The jumping performances of the young athletes were found to be reproducible from the age of 10-12 years in respect to the angular displacement of the knee and duration of contact. Absolute mechanical power, as well as power related to body weight, increased with calendar and skeletal ages. Of t…
Interrelationships between electromyographic, mechanical, muscle structure and reflex time measurements in man.
1981
Reaction time (TRT) with its premotor (PMT) and motor time (MT) components, patellar reflex time (TRfT) with its latency (LAT) and motor time (RfMT) were studied together with isometric force production and relaxation time variables in one leg isometric knee extension. These variables were intercorrelated together with muscle biopsy variables taken from m. vastus lateralis. From these computations MT proved to demonstrate significant correlations to rate of isometric force development (RFD) (P less than 0.001), maximum force (P0) (P less than 0.001) and per cent distribution of ST fibers (P less than 0.001). It is speculated that these relationships are determined by the pattern of the moto…
Biomechanical and skeletal muscle determinants of maximum running speed with aging.
2009
Purpose: Aging diminishes the ability to run fast, but the specific mechanisms responsible for this deterioration remain largely unknown. In the present study, we investigated the age-related decline in sprint running ability through a cross-sectional examination of biomechanical and skeletal muscle characteristics in 77 competitive male sprinters aged 17-82 yr. Methods: Ground reaction force (GRF) and kinematic stride cycle parameters were measured during the maximum-velocity phase using a 9.4-m-long force platform. Knee extensor (KE) and ankle plantar flexor (PF) structural characteristics were investigated using ultrasonography and muscle biopsies (vastus lateralis). Force production cha…
Evaluation of Explosive Strength for Young and Adult Athletes
1988
Abstract The explosive strengths of young (n = 361) and adult (n = 10) male athletes were evaluated by a vertical jumping and a ball-throwing test. The young athletes ranged in age from 10 to 16 years representing seven different sports events: track and field, apparatus gymnastics, basketball, ice hockey, orienteering, skiing, and wrestling. The adult subjects were volleyball players. Weighted vertical counter-movement jumps were performed on a platform connected to an electronic unit which calculated the height of the rise of the body's center of gravity. For the stationary ball throwing test, horizontal throwing velocity was measured for balls of different masses by an electrical apparat…
Muscle strength and body composition as determinants of blood pressure in young men
1979
The correlations of blood pressure to various indices of muscularity and fatness were studied in 183 young healthy men (mean age 19.7, SD 2.1 years). Systolic pressure showed significant positive correlations with body fat percentage, isometric strength of trunk extensors, body mass index, lean body mass, strength of leg extensors, heart rate, and the sum of four skinfolds. Diastolic pressure had significant positive correlations with body mass index, lean body mass, body fat percentage, sum of skinfolds, strength of leg extensors, strength of trunk extensors, and age. A stepwise selective multiple regression analysis for systolic pressure resulted in four significantly correlating variable…
Signal Characteristics of EMG at Different Levels of Muscle Tension
1976
Electromyographic activity of m. rectus femoris at submaximal and maximal voluntary contractions was quantified by conventional integration technique and also be a more "qualitative" procedure of automated motor unit averaging and frequency spectrum analysis. By relating the EMG parameters to produced muscle tension it was observed that the integrated EMG increased in a slightly nonlinear fashion with the increase in muscle force. The other EMG variables also showed clear changes as a function of muscle tension. The averaged motor unit potential (AMUP) and its specific parameters (number of spikes, amplitude, rise time and amplitude-rise time ratio) showed such changes with muscle tension t…
Effects of combined strength and sprint training on regulation of muscle contraction at the whole-muscle and single-fibre levels in elite master spri…
2008
The aims of this study were to investigate the mechanisms underlying (1) the ageing-related motor handicap at the whole muscle, cellular, contractile protein and myonuclear levels; and (2) ageing-related differences in muscle adaptability.In vivo muscles function was studied in the knee extensors. Decreases were observed in isokinetic and isometric torque outputs in old age in the sedentary men and women and elite master sprinters. A 20-week long specific sprint and resistance training successfully improved the maximal isometric force and rate of force development in a subgroup of master sprinters.In vitro measurements were performed in muscle biopsies from the vastus lateralis muscle. Immu…
Rifle-balancing in precision shooting:behavioral aspects and psychophysiological implication
2007
This study investigated sharpshooters' strategies to control their rifle stability during the aiming period. Six elite and six pre-elite shooters completed a simulated realistic shooting task (laser rifle), and their performance was evaluated from behavioral and psychophysiological perspectives. The analysis of the rifle's barrel movement, indexing the shooter's behavioral performance, supported the view that rifle-balancing is an essential determinant of superior shooting performance. The psychophysiological data, i.e. the brain slow potentials, suggested that the shooters applied different rifle-hold strategies; the elite shooters concentrated primarily on achieving a stable rifle positio…
Muscle strength and muscle characteristics in monozygous and dizygous twins.
1979
Muscle strength and electrical activity were investigated on 31 pairs of young male and female monozygous (MZ) and dizygous (DZ) twins. The measurements included leg forces, force-time, running velocity, muscular power, maximal integrated electromyographic activity (IEMG) and chronaximetry of the quadriceps muscle group. In each parameter the intrapair variance was computed and the differences were tested between the MZ and DZ twins. The variance ratio (MZ vs. DZ) was statistically significant only for muscular power confirming an earlier finding which has demonstrated a genetic component for the variable. In addition to the various performance variables several key enzymes involved in ATP …
Effects of fatigue on isometric force- and relaxation-time characteristics in human muscle
1981
Effects of intermittent one leg isometric fatigue on maximal isometric force, force production, relaxation and blood lactate were studied using 29 male students as subjects. The relative changes of variables during fatigue and recovery were intercorrelated together with muscle structure variables, which were determined using needle biopsy technique. Maximal force decreased, force production and relaxation became slower and muscle lactate increased during fatigue. Change of maximal force, force production and lactate during fatigue as well as recovery of maximal force and lactate after fatigue were correlated significantly to muscle fiber distribution. Fatiguability of the force-time charact…
Influence of lactate accumulation of EMG frequency spectrum during repeated concentric contractions
1983
One hundred and twenty consecutive maximal leg extensions at a constant angular velocity of 1.5 radians . s-1 were performed by nine physical education students. Integrated electromyographic (IEMG) activity and power spectrum density function (PSDF) of the EMG were recorded from m. vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and m. rectus femoris using bipolar surface electrodes. Muscle biopsies were obtained from m. vastus lateralis before and after exercise. Tissue samples were analyzed for muscle fiber type distribution and lactate and glycogen concentration. Muscle force and IEMG decreased in parallel over the exercise period. Thus, the IEMG/force ratio was unchanged. Mean power frequency (MPF) o…
Aging, muscle fiber type, and contractile function in sprint-trained athletes
2006
Biopsy samples were taken from the vastus lateralis of 18- to 84-yr-old male sprinters ( n = 91). Fiber-type distribution, cross-sectional area, and myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform content were identified using ATPase histochemistry and SDS-PAGE. Specific tension and maximum shortening velocity ( Vo) were determined in 144 single skinned fibers from younger (18–33 yr, n = 8) and older (53–77 yr, n = 9) runners. Force-time characteristics of the knee extensors were determined by using isometric contraction. The cross-sectional area of type I fibers was unchanged with age, whereas that of type II fibers was reduced ( P < 0.001). With age there was an increased MHC I ( P < 0.01) and re…
Effects of oxygen fraction in inspired air on force production and electromyogram activity during ergometer rowing
1997
Six male rowers rowed maximally for 2500 m in ergometer tests during normoxia (fractional concentration of oxygen in inspired air, F IO2 0.209), in hyperoxia (F IO2 0.622) and in hypoxia (F IO2 0.158) in a randomized single-blind fashion. Oxygen consumption (V˙O2), force production of strokes as well as integrated electromyographs (iEMG) and mean power frequency (MPF) from seven muscles were measured in 500-m intervals. The iEMG signals from individual muscles were summed to represent overall electrical activity of these muscles (sum-iEMG). Maximal force of a stroke (F max) decreased from the 100% pre-exercise maximal value to 67 (SD 12)%, 63 (SD 15)% and 76 (SD 13)% (P<0.05 to normoxia, AN…
Neuromuscular function and mechanical efficiency of human leg extensor muscles during jumping exercises
1982
The influence of prestretch amplitude on the mechanical efficiency was examined with 5 subjects, who performed 5 different series of vertical jumps, each of which differed with respect to the mechanics of the knee joint action during the prestretch (eccentric) phase of the contact on the floor. Electromyographic activity was recorded from the major extensor muscles during the entire work period of 1 min per series. In addition, expired air was collected during the test and recovery for determination of energy expenditure. Mechanical work was calculated from the vertical displacement of the body during the jumps. The results indicated that high net efficiency of 38.7% was observed in conditi…
Electromyographic activity related to aerobic and anaerobic threshold in ergometer bicycling
1985
Electromyographic activity (EMG) of the knee extensor musculature (m. vastus lateralis, m. vastus medialis, m. rectus femoris), triceps surae (m. gastrocnemius, m. soleus) and m. tibialis anterior was studied in ergometer bicycling at five different power outputs around aerobic (AerT) and anaerobic (AnT) thresholds. EMGs were sampled with surface electrodes for ten revolutions at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of each work load and integrated (IEMG) separately for each of the muscles and for the descending (work) and ascending (rest) phase of the revolution. The mean power frequency (MPF) of the power spectral density function for the descending periods was also calculated. The…
Signal Characteristics of EMG with Special Reference to Reproducibility of Measurements
1975
Reliability and constancy of recordings of EMG signal characteristics were investigated from the measurements taken with miniature size surface electrodes during submaximal and maximal contraction of the rectus femoris muscle. The following EMG variables were studied: integrated EMG (IEMG) various bandwidths of the power spectral density function, mean power frequency (MPF), and rise time, amplitude and number of spikes of the averaged motor unit potential (AMUP). The results indicated that for most of the variables studied the reproducibility of measurements was better within the test session (reliability) than between the different test days (constancy). The reliability values for IEMG, M…
Variability and Symmetry of Force Platform Variables in Maximum-Speed Running in Young and Older Athletes
2010
Eighteen young (23 ± 4 yr) and 25 older (70 ± 4 yr) male sprinters were examined for ground reaction force (GRF) and temporal-spatial variables. The data were collected during maximum-speed phase, and variability and symmetry indices were calculated from a total of 8 steps. There was little variation (CV < 6%) in vertical and resultant GRF and kinematic variables, while impact loading had high variability (CV: 10–21%). Overall, the pattern of variability was similar in both groups. Yet, a small but significant age-related increase in CV was evident in horizontal GRFs. There was a variable-specific asymmetry between legs but it was not related to leg dominance. No age differences existed …
Warm underwater water-jet massage improves recovery from intense physical exercise
1995
The effects of warm underwater water-jet massage on neuromuscular functioning, selected biochemical parameters (serum creatine kinase, lactic dehydrogenase, serum carbonic anhydrase, myoglobin, urine urea and creatinine) and muscle soreness were studied among 14 junior track and field athletes. Each subject spent, in a randomized order, two identical training weeks engaged in five strength/power training sessions lasting 3 days. The training weeks differed from each other only in respect of underwater water-jet massage treatments. These were used three times (20 min each) during the treatment week and not used during the control week. During the treatment week continuous jumping power decre…