Kinematic and Electromyographic Analysis of Lower Limb to Cycling
Seoung Soo Yuk, Tae Young Kim, Kyoung Suk You · Journal of Sport and Leisure Studies · 2002
The purpose of this study was to compare the pedaling technique differences between the elite athletes and non-athletes by examining the lower extremities with the change of the pedal and crank angular, velocity and acceleration, power and lower muscle activities. For the purpose of this study, six subjects were employed, three of them elite athletes and rest of them were non-athletes. A high speed video camera and 4 channel EMG system were used to collect data during the pedaling. The speeds of pedaling were 30km/h, 35km/h and 40km/h. And the height of the saddle was set based on the length of lower leg. The lower muscles analyze the rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior. The results obtained from this studies were as follows ; 1. Athlete group revealed greater horizontal angle of pedal than non-athlete group. But there was a tendency that pedaling speed was positively related to the horizontal angle of pedal. 2. The angular displacement and angular displacement of the leg segment with the velocity change of pedaling had no difference between two groups, but non-athlete group showed greater change of angular change in th ankle. 3. Athlete group represented larger value in the differences between maximum angle and minimum angle of the knee angle than non-athlete group. As the faster pedaling speed, the greater the difference for athlete group, but as the faster the speed for non-athlete group the smaller the difference. 4. As the speed of pedaling increases, athlete group showed large positive instantaneous angular acceleration, but non-athlete group had higher negative instantaneous angular acceleration. 5. As the speed of pedaling increase, the amount of positive work in athlete group was great but the amount of negative work in athlete group was large. 6. Looking at the activation of IEMG during pedaling, the elite group showed greater the antagonist muscle activities(biceps femoris, gastrocnemius) than the agonist muscle activities(rectus femoris, tibialis anterior). But non-athletes group revealed more activation of agonist than antagonist. Athlete group employed the biceps femurius and the rectus femoris in some degree but non-athlete group used them in large degree.