Characteristic Analysis of the Lower Limb Muscular Strength Training System applied with MR Dampers
Issue title: Frontiers in Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology – Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, 11–13 October 2013, Wuhan, China
Affiliations: Division of Biomedical Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Deokjin-Dong 1-Ga, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-756, South Korea | Chonbuk National University Automobile-Parts & Mold Technology Innovation Center, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-844, South Korea | Bioengineering Research Center for the Aged, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-756, South Korea
Abstract: A new training system that can adjust training intensity and indicate the center pressure of a subject was proposed by applying controlled electric current to the Magneto-Rheological damper. The experimental studying on the muscular activities were performed in lower extremities during maintaining and moving exercises, which were processed on an unstable platform with Magneto rheological dampers and recorded in a monitor. The electromyography (EMG) signals of the eight muscles in lower extremities were recorded and analyzed in certain time and frequency domain. Muscles researched in this paper were rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris (BF), tensor fasciae latae (TFL), vastuslateralis (VL), vastusmedialis (VM), gastrocnemius (Ga), tibialis anterior (TA), and soleus (So). Differences of muscular activities during four moving exercises were studied in our experimental results. The rate of the increment of the muscular activities was affected by the condition of the unstable platform with MR dampers, which suggested the difference of moving exercises could selectively train each muscle with varying intensities. Furthermore, these findings also proposed that this training system can improve the ability of postural balance.
