Search results for "stretch"
showing 10 items of 170 documents
Effects of Stretching on Upper-Body Muscular Performance
2008
The purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of upper-body static stretching and dynamic stretching on upper-body muscular performance. Eleven healthy men, who were National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I track and field athletes (age, 19.6 +/- 1.7 years; body mass, 93.7 +/- 13.8 kg; height, 183.6 +/- 4.6 cm; bench press 1 repetition maximum [1RM], 106.2 +/- 23.0 kg), participated in this study. Over 4 sessions, subjects participated in 4 different stretching protocols (i.e., no stretching, static stretching, dynamic stretching, and combined static and dynamic stretching) in a balanced randomized order followed by 4 tests: 30% of 1 RM bench throw, isometric ben…
Neuromuscular function during drop jumps in young and elderly males
2011
The Hoffman reflex (H-reflex), indicating alpha-motoneuron pool activity, has been shown to be task - and in resting conditions - age dependent. How aging affects H-reflex activity during explosive movements is not clear at present. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aging on H-reflexes during drop jumps, and its possible role in drop jump performance. Ten young (26.8 ± 2.7 years) and twenty elderly (64.2 ± 2.7 years) subjects participated in the study. Maximal drop jump performance and soleus H-reflex response (H/M jump) 20 ms after ground contact were measured in a sledge ergometer. Maximal H-reflex, maximal M-wave, Hmax/Mmax-ratio and H-reflex excitability curves wer…
Conditioning hops increase triceps surae muscle force and Achilles tendon strain energy in the stretch-shortening cycle
2018
Postactivation potentiation can improve athletic performance, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. This study investigated the effect of conditioning hops on triceps surae muscle force and tendon strain and its contribution to potentiated stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) performance. Thirty-two subjects participated in two experiments. In both experiments, subjects performed three drop jumps (DJs) after prior conditioning with 10 maximal hops, three unconditioned DJs served as control. Ground reaction forces, kinematics, and triceps surae electromyographic activity were recorded. Ultrasound imaging was used to determine fascicle lengths (FASC) of the gastrocnemius (GM) and sol…
Biceps Femoris Long Head Muscle Fascicles Actively Lengthen During the Nordic Hamstring Exercise
2021
Current debate exists around whether a presumed eccentric exercise, the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE), actually causes active hamstring muscle lengthening. This is because of the decoupling that can occur between the muscle fascicle and muscle-tendon unit (MTU) length changes in relatively compliant human lower-limb MTUs, which results in MTU lengthening not necessarily causing muscle fascicle lengthening. This missing knowledge complicates the interpretation of why the NHE is effective at reducing running-related hamstring muscle injury risk in athletes previously unfamiliar with performing this exercise. The purpose of the study was therefore to investigate if the most-commonly injured …
Effects of muscle activation on shear between human soleus and gastrocnemius muscles
2015
Lateral connections between muscles provide pathways for myofascial force transmission. To elucidate whether these pathways have functional roles in vivo, we examined whether activation could alter the shear between the soleus (SOL) and lateral gastrocnemius (LG) muscles. We hypothesized that selective activation of LG would decrease the stretch-induced shear between LG and SOL. Eleven volunteers underwent a series of knee joint manipulations where plantar flexion force, LG, and SOL muscle fascicle lengths and relative displacement of aponeuroses between the muscles were obtained. Data during a passive full range of motion were recorded, followed by 20° knee extension stretches in both pass…
The effect of fatigue on store and re-use of elastic energy in slow and fast types of human skeletal muscle
1986
Stretch-shortening exercises are characterized by enhancement of performance when compared to the work output performed in shortening conditions. There is evidence that fast subjects are unable to re-use great amounts of elastic energy during stretch-shortening cycles performed with slow stretching speed and large stretching length. In the present study, 14 subjects possessing different fibre types in m. vastus lateralis performed vertical jumps with and without preliminary countermovement and with large angular displacement and slow stretching speed The jumping tests were executed before and immediately after fatigue induced by short intense exercises (60 s of continuous rebound jumping). …
Changes in muscle activity with increasing running speed.
2005
Electromyographic (EMG) activity of the leg muscles and the ground reaction forces were recorded in 17 elite male middle-distance runners, who performed isometric maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) as well as running at different speeds. Electromyograms were recorded from the gluteus maximus, vastus lateralis, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior. The results indicated that the averaged EMG (aEMG) activities of all the muscles studied increased (P < 0.05) with increasing running speed, especially in the pre-contact and braking phases. At higher speeds, the aEMG activities of the gastrocnemius, vastus lateralis, biceps femoris and gluteus maximus exceeded 100% MVC in these s…
Temporal Structure of Human Gaze Dynamics Is Invariant During Free Viewing.
2015
We investigate the dynamic structure of human gaze and present an experimental study of the frequency components of the change in gaze position over time during free viewing of computer-generated fractal images. We show that changes in gaze position are scale-invariant in time with statistical properties that are characteristic of a random walk process. We quantify and track changes in the temporal structure using a well-defined scaling parameter called the Hurst exponent, H. We find H is robust regardless of the spatial complexity generated by the fractal images. In addition, we find the Hurst exponent is invariant across all participants, including those with distinct changes to higher or…
Stretch-shortening cycle: a powerful model to study normal and fatigued muscle.
2000
Stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) in human skeletal muscle gives unique possibilities to study normal and fatigued muscle function. The in vivo force measurement systems, buckle transducer technique and optic fiber technique, have revealed that, as compared to a pure concentric action, a non-fatiguing SSC exercise demonstrates considerable performance enhancement with increased force at a given shortening velocity. Characteristic to this phenomenon is very low EMG-activity in the concentric phase of the cycle, but a very pronounced contribution of the short-latency stretch-reflex component. This reflex contributes significantly to force generation during the transition (stretch-shortening) pha…
Effects of an adapted physical activity program on psychophysical health in elderly women.
2016
Giuseppe Battaglia,1,2 Marianna Bellafiore,1,2 Marianna Alesi,1,2 Antonio Paoli,3 Antonino Bianco,1,2 Antonio Palma1,2 1Department of Psychological, Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, 2Sport and Exercise Sciences Research Unit, University of Palermo, Palermo, 3Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Padua, Italy Background: Several studies have shown the positive effects of adapted physical activity (APA) on physical and mental health (MH) during the lifetime. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a specific APA intervention program in the improvement of the health-related quality of life (QOL) and functional condition of spine in elderly women. Method…