emg in swimming

7/26/2019 emg in swimming

1/13

A Rev

iew

of

E

M G in

Swimmin

g

Ex

planatio

n

of

Fa

cts

and orFeed

back In

formatio

n

Jan

Pieter Cla

rys

Vrije Un

iversiteit B

russel, B

elgium

Reading

betweenthe

lines

of the earli

er publica

tions b y C

ureton (19

30)

an

d Karpov

ich (1935)

, on e can a

ssume tha

t 44 di

fferent mu

scles are a

c

tive

in swim

ming the

- fro nt c r a ~ l . ~

-We

ineck (19

81) listed

30 activ

e

musc

les. Betw

een 1930

and today

m a n y a

uthors, co

aches and

physical

educat

ion teache

rs have mad

e attem

pts to des

cribe ana

tomical fu

nction

and mu

scle partic

ipation in sW

lii:iming

the fron

t crawl.

Using

a combin

ation of

elementar

y anatom i

cal knowl

edge and

func

t

ional reaso

ning, w it

hin the f r

ont crawl

technique

l l statem

ents are

ac

c

eptable. If

one con

cludes the

concentr

ic-, the e

ccentric-,

the agonis

t-,

the

antagonis

t-,tiie-spu

rt:.andth e

hU lt-m u

scle actio

n over the

different

join

ts

o

f a sw

imming b

ody, i t pr

oba:i)iy w o

uld be

ve

ry close to

reality to

assu

m e that

l

l

skeletal

muscles

o

fthe

bo

dy are activ

e in swim

ming the

frontcrawl, in o ther words

170 single

muscles we

are not sure about

the m. c

remaster.

Muscl

e particip

ation

is

o

nly one el

ement. Jbe

u s c l ~ t t

e m w

ith a

co

mplexri1 '

YtfiiillcatS

Wlniiniilg

movemen

t is

a

notherta

i ~ ~ p o r y

m t

e

lement,

and this in f

ormat ionc

annot e

o-btained y

function

al anatom

i

calde

ductions

.

T

he fi

rst studyof

myoele

ctric signa

ls during

swimmin

g

~ s J e d -

J l l ' ~ a . l

- : - ( f 9 6

l i l l J a p

a n e s e

and

964

in Engl

ish; Note

1

and

describe

d 15 m usc

le pattern

s in 14 su

bjects, co

mparing the

EMG

results

of

university and Olympic swimmers and stressing the importance

of

the m.

triceps

brachii, m.

biceps

brachii, m.

latissim

us dorsi

, m.

deltoideus

an

d m. te

res majo

r in top-lev

el s w i m m i n g .

_ : r v ~ r e s u

l t s ofI

kai

t

al.

( 1

9 6 4 t ~ l Y ~ ~

_ I l ~ u s e < I _

~ ~ ~ l y ~

ha

ve provid

ed a bette

r interpret

a

tion

of

sw im

ming mov

ements (

e.g., in C

ounsilman

's cience o

wim-

ming

[1968]

.

_D

espite t

he l imitatio

ns of th is

ust

EMG

study ,

such as a

lack of

calibn

ifionand

lack of patt

ern nor

malization

necessary

for comp

arison,

t

offered in form at ion

to

t rainers

and

coaches

that

was

never available

123


2/13


3/13

EMG

IN SWLMMING

125

ments, and Lewillie 1968a, 1968b,

1973

with three muscles. Vaday and

Nemessuri 1971) studied

20

muscles using the conventional wire ap

paratus and stressing the importance

of

the pull-and-push phase in the

crawl movement. Clarys et al. 1973) compared the water polo and com

petitiveJroJl:Lq_awl

l ~ a s u 6 1 1 _ g J ~ k m ~ J r i g l ) J y ,

four arm muscles. Maes et

al. 1975) studied six muscles with the same device in an atteiiiiito

evalualetiie movements

of

handicapped swimmers. Belokovsky 1971)

was the ffrsfto

work:

with a reasonably large group of 57 subjects, in

vestigating the dynamic elements and fundamental deviation

of

these

elements within the front crawl arm movement.

Renner 1980) used three muscles to analyze the various components

of the front crawl underwater arm stroke, combining the wire apparatus

EMG technique with the use

of

maximal isometric contraction as in

troduced by Lewillie 1971). Front crawl EMG research by Clarys et al.

1983, this volume) presented standardized myoelectric integrated EMG

patterns of

25

muscles.

Using the methodological investigations

of

Lewillie 1967; 1968b;

1971 and based on previously published preliminary research Clarys et

al., 1973; Maes et al., 1975; Piette and Clarys, 1979 this writer has at

tempted to produce a total experimental image

of

all superficial body

muscles presumed to be electrically active during the front crawl move

ment excluding the smaller hand, feet and head musculature).

In order to allow practical use and a possibility for comparison of

these data, the results are

p r s p t ~

'

normalized pattern diagrams

~

C

. I t A . ~

based

on

the nondimensional expression

of

integrated EMG patterns.

These results are the subject

of

further discussion in this article.

reaststroke

Electromyography

of

the breaststroke has been studied by Ikai t al.

1964, 14 muscles); Lewillie 1971, three muscles; 1974, two muscles);

Tokuyama et al. 1976,

14

muscles) and Yoshizawa et al. 1978, 16

muscles).

ackstroke and Dolphin

Compared to the front crawl and breaststroke, very little work has

een

done to gather information and/or to explain the myoelectric pat

terns in the backstroke Lewillie, 1974, two muscles) and the dolphin

Barthels and Adrian, 1971, six muscles; Lewillie, 1974, two muscles).

From these studies, interesting feedback information was obtained con

cerning the high variability

and

thus differences observed in the kicking

patterns of top dolphin swimmers.


4/13

126

larys

EMG in Infants and hildren

In completing the review

of

EMG swimming research, one must men

tion the work of Tokuyama et al. (1976), Oka et al.

1979)

and Okamoto

and Wolf (1979) for two distinct reasons:

These studies show the importance of EMG feedback information in

the process

of

learning

to

swim.

New possibilities arise since the experiments used fine wire electrodes

instead

of

the more typical surface electrodes.

As an example

of

the first case, Oka et al. (1979) trained a 6-year-old

boy with appropriate instruction based on the electromyographic obser

vations obtained from skilled adults. After some time his flutter kick

movement was much improved and the discharge patterns approached

those of the skilled adult.

The other possibilities were introduced when Okamoto and Wolf

(1979) used nylon-karma alloy fme-wire electrodes. Movement artifacts

can now be avoided and recording sessions can last for several hours

without interruption. Since percutaneous recordings from muscles have

the advantage

of

enabling the investigator to assume that the pickup

is

from a specific muscle, this technique will enable one

to

explain more

precisely the myoelectric behavior during various aquatic activities.

Considering all these studies over the last 20 years, they have not

solved the problem

of

both quantitative and qualitative comparison

of

EMG data. We investigated 25 muscles (Clarys et al., 1983) covering the

overall surface area

of

the human body; the selection criteria have been

described previously (Piette and Clarys, 1979).

Subjects

n = 60)

were studied (30 competitive swimmers and

30

swim

mers with good technical skills). Swimming speed was standardized for

all subjects using a series

of

successive lights, fixed 1 m below the water

surface. Before fiXation of the electrodes, the motor point of each

muscle was defined. Unfortunately, the localization

of

these high

potential points was not always technically adequate for efficient record

ings in all muscles. Therefore, the electrodes were cutaneously fiXed in

the topographical midpoint

of

the muscle surface area, independent

of

the motor point position and according to the recommendations

of

Basmajian (1967) and Goodgold (1974).

Before the actual

data

collection, the amplification apparatus was ad

justed

to

the signal intensity

of

each subject, while the actual EMG re

cording consisted

of

the integrated recording of: (a) the dynamic swim

ming contraction at a known speed

of

1.7 m sec l (DC);

(b)

the

(relative) isometric maximal contraction (IC), and (c) a constant calibra

tion value (CV).

The surface

area of

the integrated patterns was also measured (Piette

and Clarys, 1979). Expressing microvoltage results in terms

of

surface

area simplifies further calculation

and

allows for a normalized dynamic


5/13

E MG IN

SWIMMI

NG

REGISTR

ATEO

P

ATTERN

i

pi pho

i =input

g = he gl ido phos

e

pi

=

h

e pul

l

phosa

NORMALISED PATTE

RN

I I I

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1 :

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eg :

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~ =

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oint 1

registratod pottem

distom:e to b

aseline = 6

lll

point n

onaallsed p

llttlm distance to b

aseline =

:

0 6 X

2

:

1,2 a

REGISTRA

T

ED

P

ATTERN

Figure

1 -

Pattern normalization

r

standardization procedures.

co

ntraction

index:

N D C =

D

cm2

sec)/CV

cm2 s

ec),

anda

normalize

d (relative

) isom etri

c maxim u

m index:

NI

=

I (

cm2 sec

) /CV (cm2

sec ),

NORMAliSED

P mRN

27

th

rough wh

ich musc

le activity

can b e p

resented a

s a percen

tage of t

he

is

ometric m

aximum :

X

100.

Thisnon

dimensio

nal expres

sion of in

tegrated EM

G patte

rns allows

for a

c

omparison

of musc

le activity

between s

ubjectsof

totallydif

ferent swi

m-

ming capabilities, enabling

one

to

establish anoverall im age

of

muscle

co

ntraction

for the fr

ont crawl

movem en

t (Figure

1).

For each pa

rt of the i

nvestigati

on the m .

biceps bra

chii was u

sed asa

referen

ce muscl

e in order

to

clarify

the c hron

ological

order of t

he con-

traction

s within th

e differen

t phases

of the craw

l moveme

nt. O ne

arm cy-

cle was d

erived acc

ording to

the distri

bution of the

movem

ent pa tte

rn as

described

by Va day

andN em

essur i(19

71). A s it

is not the p

urpose o

f his

review art

icle togi

ve detaile

d qualitat

ive and q

uantitativ

e analysis

of

muscle activity,

an

overall and average review

of

25

norm alized contrac-

tion

pat tern

diagram s

re presen

ted inFig

ures 2 th r

ough 9.


6/13

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agram

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7/13

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emg in swimming