Search results for "muscle-tendon unit"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Neuromuscular electrical stimulation leads to physiological gains enhancing postural balance in the pre‐frail elderly
2015
International audience; Physiological aging leads to a progressive weakening of muscles and tendons, thereby disturbing the ability to control postural balance and consequently increasing exposure to the risks of falls. Here, we introduce a simple and easy-to-use neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) training paradigm designed to alleviate the postural control deficit in the elderly, the first hallmarks of which present as functional impairment. Nine pre-frail older women living in a long-term care facility performed 4 weeks of NMES training on their plantarflexor muscles, and seven nontrained, non-frail older women living at home participated in this study as controls. Participants w…
Concentric force enhancement during human movement
2001
In order to understand the possible mechanisms contributing to enhanced concentric performance in stretch-shortening cycle exercises in vivo the present study examined knee extension torque, EMG activity and fascicle length of the vastus lateralis muscle in maximal and submaximal human movements. Maximal concentric knee extensions (120 s-1) were done after pre-stretch and pre-isometric conditions by nine volunteers. During shortening at the knee angle of 115 (180 = extended) the knee extension torque was found to be greater in pre-stretch condition (272 vs. 248 Nm, p < 0.05) although the torque level prior to shortening was smaller than in pre-isometric condition (268 vs. 314 Nm, p< 0.05…
Muscle-tendon mechanics and energetics during walking, running and jumping.
2012
In the human lower limb, muscles and tendon tend to interact in an efficient manner during common movements like walking, running and jumping. This pattern of interaction exploits the ability of muscles to produce forces efficiently at low shortening velocities, whilst tendons act as springs that help to store elastic energy during the contact phase, and return a large proportion of the energy in the pushoff phase. This pattern of muscletendon interaction can be disrupted in novel tasks or as a consequence of ageing or disease, resulting in a decrease in movement efficiency. peerReviewed