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Fig. 4. Age-related dierence in leg stiness. * indicates a ignicant
dierence (p < 0.05).
0
100
200
300
Old
Young
E
n
e
r
g
y
[
J
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Fig. 5. Age-related dierence in energy stored in the muscles of lower
extremity during eccentric phase of CMJ. * indicates a signicant
dierence (p < 0.05).
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Old
Young
E
n
e
r
g
y
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J
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Fig. 6. Age-related dierence in energy returned from the muscles of
lower extremity during concentric phase of CMJ. * indicates a
signicant dierence (p < 0.05).
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351 347
whole muscle stiness examined in the previous studies
for the elderly when conducting plantar exion or step-
ping down movement. In an active muscle, the active leg
stiness from active muscle recruitment can be voluntar-
ily controlled [26,38], that may play a more important
role than passive properties in a specic task [31]. The
stiness of lower extremities during a maximal CMJ
generated by voluntary control of the neuromuscular
system is contributed by active muscle stiness, which
is termed apparent stiness to dier from authentic
stiness of passive tissue [44]. It is well known that aging
results in physiological alterations of human nerve and
contraction characteristics of the motor unit, such as
slower muscle excitability [9] and lower ring rates of
motor units [22], especially at high level of contraction
[23] that may lead to impaired ability in generating
strength per unit change of muscle length in an active
muscle during voluntary contraction movements for
the elderly. We, therefore, suspect that the elderly, in
comparison with young subjects, have smaller active
leg stiness when performing a maximal voluntary
movement. The movement time, IEMG of the knee
extensor and exor in the eccentric phase did not dier
signicantly between two groups, whereas a signicant
dierence (p < 0.05) was found for these parameters dur-
ing the concentric phase. The IEMG divided by the re-
lated movement time is the EMG mean amplitude. As
the movement time of old subjects was longer both in
the concentric and eccentric phase as shown in Table
1, the old subjects performed the CMJ with signicantly
lower EMG amplitude in RF with more than 40% lesser
in the eccentric phase and 60% less in the concentric
phase. Since the EMG signals had already been normal-
ized by the SJ, these EMG data of the CMJ indicated
that the activity level of muscles and thus the muscular
strength during dynamic reactive movement decreased
with aging.
During the maximal voluntary CMJ, the body moves
rstly downward that makes leg extensor experiences a
stretch-shortening cycle (SSC). According to the previ-
ous studies, the SSC initiated during the eccentric action
of the CMJ was a slow type SSC, and the EMG activi-
ties of leg extensor were not found to be greater for the
duration of the eccentric action than for the concentric
action [3,24]. Komi et al. also reported that the EMG
activity of the concentric action was greater than the
eccentric muscle action in slow stretched movement [25].
The EMG activity was considered to be induced by
the voluntary control and stretch reex of the neuro-
muscular system for eccentric phase, and by voluntary
contraction of muscles for concentric phase in CMJ.
In this study, the old subjects experienced lower IEMG
and longer movement time in concentric phase showing
lower muscle activation in RF and BF while perform-
ing maximal voluntary CMJ which suggested that the
number of motor units activated per unit time was less
in older people. Aging decreases the ability of the neu-
romuscular system aecting furthermore the muscular
strength of the lower extremities and the performance
of jump. Although both young and old subjects per-
formed CMJ with maximal eort, the young subjects
were able to recruit more motor unit in a short time
and jump higher. It is conceivable that the CMJ can
be considered as a slow type SSC movement in which
the stretch reex of the neuromuscular system is pro-
voked [35]. The lower EMG activities for the elder in
our study may result from the declining of muscle
strength and reex ability of neuromuscular system
during SSC.
Based on classical mechanics, when an elastic body is
deformed, the energy stored and returned by the body is
related to the stiness of the body. The elderly was ob-
served to experienced 21.5% less for energy stored dur-
ing eccentric phase, 38% and 49% less for energy
returned and active work done, respectively, during
the concentric phase comparing to the young
(p < 0.05) (see Fig. 7). The correlation coecient be-
tween leg stiness and active work done (r = 0.63,
p < 0.05) was found signicant for all subjects, however,
no signicant correlation was found either between leg
stiness and energy stored or between leg stiness and
energy returned by the muscles of the lower extremities.
These results could be elucidated by Zatsiorskys [44]
theory of dierential implications of stiness between
passive and active objects. The musculoskeletal system
contains passive and active elements, in which the pas-
sive elements include tendons, ligaments, cartilage,
bones, skin and relaxed (not activated) muscles, whereas
the active elements derived from the activated muscles
can change their length without external forces. There-
fore, in active objects, a one-to-one relationship between
the force and length does not exist. The entire force
length relationship changes, when the level of activation
varies. Even though the level of activation and its time
course is specied under the conditions of maximal vol-
untary CMJ, the force produced by the activated mus-
cles of the lower extremities depends on the amplitude
and speed of the stretch, the time elapsed after the
stretch, and the co-contraction of antagonistic muscles
[24,28,44]. When the kinematic chain of the lower
extremities is considered solely a passive elastic object,
the energy returned during restoration should be less
than the energy stored during deformation, both the en-
ergy stored and returned are related to the stiness.
However, the lower extremities contain both passive
and active elements. The active elements (activated mus-
cles) can actively do work during the CMJ that makes
the energy returned greater than the energy stored. This
could explain why the energy stored and returned during
the eccentric and concentric action were not correlated
with the leg stiness, but the active work was found in
this study to be correlated with leg stiness.
348 Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351
The results of this study indicate that the ability of
the neuromuscular system to adjust stiness for storing
energy and maximizing performance decreases with
age as shown during a maximal voluntary CMJ. The
present study conrmed Zatsiorskys [44] speculation
that measurement of the stiness of musculoskeletal sys-
tem, if performed properly, is potentially valuable. It en-
riches our understanding of human movement and
allows us to estimate the amount of elastic potential en-
ergy that can be stored in the muscles and connective tis-
sues during the eccentric phases of movement.
5. Conclusion
Old subjects performed maximal voluntary CMJ with
substantially lower leg stiness combined with lower
elastic potential energy storage in the muscles during
the eccentric phases and lower active work done by
the muscles during concentric phase of the CMJ. The
normalized EMG recording showed that the level of
muscles activation and thus the muscular strength dur-
ing the dynamic reactive CMJ decreased with age. These
results revealed that the ability of the neuromuscular
system to generate strength per unit change of muscle
length, to store elastic energy, and to optimize the per-
formance during a maximal voluntary movement de-
creases with aging. Old adults should, therefore, be
encouraged to perform neuromuscular integrated dy-
namic exercises. Based on the present work, we recom-
mended an exercise program including SSC type
movement that may be eective enough to recondition
the muscles reactive strength for the old adults, and to
improve the degraded related capacity. Meanwhile, it
is suggested that the dynamic CMJ could be an easy-
use test method to estimate the strength and leg stiness
for aged people.
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0.0 0.2 0.4
0.0
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1.0
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2.0
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t
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Dr. Yu Liu received B.S. in Human Move-
ment Sciences from Beijing Sport Univer-
sity, Beijing, China in 1982 and worked as
researcher at the Dept. of Biomechanics of
China National Institute of Sport Science in
Beijing, China from 1982 to 1987. He
obtained Ph.D. in Sport Sciences from the
University of Frankfurt am Main, Ger-
many in 1992 and completed a Postdoctoral
Fellowship with the Applied Movement
Research at the German Sport University
Cologne, Germany. Now, he is a full Pro-
fessor of Biomechanics in the Department of Kinesiology and Grad-
uate Institute of Sport Coaching Science at Chinese Culture University
in Taipei, Taiwan. His research interests include sport biomechanics,
biomechanical modeling, EMG and neuromotor control of human
movement.
Chien-hua Peng received B.S. degree from
Ming Chuan College (1980) and M.S.
degree (2005) in Sport Coaching Science
from Chinese Culture University, Taipei,
Taiwan. She is currently a researcher for the
sport science program funded by National
Science Council. Her research interests are
mainly biomechanical signal analysis,
especially in electromyogram and mecha-
nomyogram to investigating muscle func-
tion for the aging.
350 Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351
Shun-hwa Wei was born in Taipei, Taiwan
in July 14, 1958. He received his B.S. degree
in Physical Therapy from National Taiwan
University, Taipei, Taiwan in1985, M.S.
degree in Biomedical Engineering from
National Cheng Kung University, Tainan,
Taiwan in 1988. Finally, he obtained Ph.D.
degree in Exercise Science from University
of Iowa, USA in 1994. Currently, he is
associated professor and director of reha-
bilitation science and technology in
National Yang Ming University. Interest-
ing areas are in musculoskeletal control.
Jung-Chun Chi received his B.S. degree in
Movement Science from National Taiwan
Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan in 1999,
and he completed his M.S. degree at the
same institution in 2001. His study in
graduate school was focused on the motor
control and electromyography of the
elderly during stepping down stair and
counter-movement jump. From 1999 to
2004, he participated in the research project
of the elderly movement strategies. His
main eld of research is neuromuscular
control and biomechanics.
Feng-Jen Tsai was born in Taiwan, in 1966.
He received his B.S. degree in Physical
Education from Fu-Jen Catholic Univer-
sity, Taipei in 1990, M.S. degree in Sport
Coaching Science from Chinese Culture
University, Taipei in 1998. Currently, he is
a Ph.D. candidate at the National Taiwan
Normal University, Taipei with specializa-
tion in sport biomechanics, and P.E. lec-
turer in National United University. His
research interests include sport biome-
chanics, electromyography, strength and
conditioning and health tness for elder. He got an outstanding tea-
chers reward from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education in 2001.
Jia-yean Chen received his B.S. in Physical
Education and M.S. in Sport Coaching
Science from the Chinese Culture Univer-
sity, Taipei, Taiwan in 1974 and 1998,
respectively. Currently, he is an Associate
Professor in the Dept. of Kinesiology and
Ph.D. candidate at the Chinese Culture
University. In addition, he is an interna-
tional judge of Mens Artistic Gymnastics
at World Championships, Olympic Games
and Asia Games over 20 times from 1987
until 2005 and received honor Judge from
F.I.G. in 2000. His research interests include sport biomechanics and
physical tness for elder.
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351 351