title: The relationship between electromyogram and muscle force.
abstract: Some guidelines are given for the interpretation of the electromyogram (EMG). In static isometric contractions there is, usually a linear, relationship between muscle force and smoothed rectified EMG (SRE). It should be considered, however, that most of the time several muscles are active simultaneously around a joint. This finding implies that the relationship between the SRE of a single muscle and the total joint moment needs not be linear. During movements, the force-length-velocity relationship and the elastic properties of muscle should be taken into account. Also, EMGs during concentric movements are larger than those measured during isometric actions. A further consideration in relating force to EMG is that the force signal has a much lower frequency content than the rectified EMG. Finally, the limited speed of the activation and deactivation process results in a 50 to 200 ms delay of the muscle force relative to the EMG.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physiology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. a.l.hof@med.rug.nl
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hof
mesh_terms: D004576:Electromyography / Q000295:instrumentation; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007537:Isometric Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology