Effective Assessments of a Short-Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical Exercise

A forward head and rounded shoulder posture is a poor posture that is widely seen in everyday life. It is known that sitting in such a poor posture with long hours will bring health issues such as muscle pain. However, it is not known whether sitting in this poor posture for a short period of time w...

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Main Authors: Lei Lu, Mark Robinson, Ying Tan, Kusal Goonewardena, Xinliang Guo, Iven Mareels, Denny Oetomo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-10-01
Series:Frontiers in Physiology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2020.541974/full
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spelling doaj-dcb0ea5ee02f493db211f910296915032020-11-25T03:40:32ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Physiology1664-042X2020-10-011110.3389/fphys.2020.541974541974Effective Assessments of a Short-Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical ExerciseLei Lu0Lei Lu1Mark Robinson2Ying Tan3Kusal Goonewardena4Xinliang Guo5Iven Mareels6Denny Oetomo7Melbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, AustraliaSchool of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, ChinaMelbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, AustraliaMelbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, AustraliaElite Akademy Sports Medicine, Parkville, VIC, AustraliaMelbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, AustraliaIBM Research - Australia, Southbank, VIC, AustraliaMelbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, AustraliaA forward head and rounded shoulder posture is a poor posture that is widely seen in everyday life. It is known that sitting in such a poor posture with long hours will bring health issues such as muscle pain. However, it is not known whether sitting in this poor posture for a short period of time will affect human activities. This paper investigates the effects of a short-duration poor posture before some typical physical activities such as push-ups. The experiments are set up as follows. Fourteen male subjects are asked to do push-ups until fatigue with two surface electromyography (sEMG) at the upper limb. Two days later, they are asked to sit in this poor posture for 15 min with eight sEMG sensors located at given back muscles. Then they do the push-ups after the short-duration poor posture. The observations from the median frequency of sEMG signals at the upper limb indicate that the short-duration poor posture does affect the fatigue procedure of push-ups. A significant decreasing trend of the performance of push-ups is obtained after sitting in this poor posture. Such effects indicate that some parts of the back muscles indeed get fatigued with only 15 min sitting in this poor posture. By further investigating the time-frequency components of sEMG of back muscles, it is observed that the low and middle frequencies of sEMG signals from the infraspinatus muscle of the dominant side are demonstrated to be more prone to fatigue with the poor posture. Although this study focuses only on push-ups, similar experiments can be arranged for other physical exercises as well. This study provides new insights into the effect of a short-duration poor posture before physical activities. These insights can be used to guide athletes to pay attention to postures before physical activities to improve performance and reduce the risk of injury.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2020.541974/fullpoor posturesurface electromyographymuscle fatiguefrequency spectrumphysical activity
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Lei Lu
Lei Lu
Mark Robinson
Ying Tan
Kusal Goonewardena
Xinliang Guo
Iven Mareels
Denny Oetomo
spellingShingle Lei Lu
Lei Lu
Mark Robinson
Ying Tan
Kusal Goonewardena
Xinliang Guo
Iven Mareels
Denny Oetomo
Effective Assessments of a Short-Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical Exercise
Frontiers in Physiology
poor posture
surface electromyography
muscle fatigue
frequency spectrum
physical activity
author_facet Lei Lu
Lei Lu
Mark Robinson
Ying Tan
Kusal Goonewardena
Xinliang Guo
Iven Mareels
Denny Oetomo
author_sort Lei Lu
title Effective Assessments of a Short-Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical Exercise
title_short Effective Assessments of a Short-Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical Exercise
title_full Effective Assessments of a Short-Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical Exercise
title_fullStr Effective Assessments of a Short-Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical Exercise
title_full_unstemmed Effective Assessments of a Short-Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical Exercise
title_sort effective assessments of a short-duration poor posture on upper limb muscle fatigue before physical exercise
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Physiology
issn 1664-042X
publishDate 2020-10-01
description A forward head and rounded shoulder posture is a poor posture that is widely seen in everyday life. It is known that sitting in such a poor posture with long hours will bring health issues such as muscle pain. However, it is not known whether sitting in this poor posture for a short period of time will affect human activities. This paper investigates the effects of a short-duration poor posture before some typical physical activities such as push-ups. The experiments are set up as follows. Fourteen male subjects are asked to do push-ups until fatigue with two surface electromyography (sEMG) at the upper limb. Two days later, they are asked to sit in this poor posture for 15 min with eight sEMG sensors located at given back muscles. Then they do the push-ups after the short-duration poor posture. The observations from the median frequency of sEMG signals at the upper limb indicate that the short-duration poor posture does affect the fatigue procedure of push-ups. A significant decreasing trend of the performance of push-ups is obtained after sitting in this poor posture. Such effects indicate that some parts of the back muscles indeed get fatigued with only 15 min sitting in this poor posture. By further investigating the time-frequency components of sEMG of back muscles, it is observed that the low and middle frequencies of sEMG signals from the infraspinatus muscle of the dominant side are demonstrated to be more prone to fatigue with the poor posture. Although this study focuses only on push-ups, similar experiments can be arranged for other physical exercises as well. This study provides new insights into the effect of a short-duration poor posture before physical activities. These insights can be used to guide athletes to pay attention to postures before physical activities to improve performance and reduce the risk of injury.
topic poor posture
surface electromyography
muscle fatigue
frequency spectrum
physical activity
url https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2020.541974/full
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