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The effect of pre-stretch on mechanical efficiency of human skeletal muscle

Article  in  Acta Physiologica Scandinavica · December 1987

DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-1716.1987.tb08246.x · Source: PubMed

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Originals
Effect of Elastic Energy and Myoelectrical Potentiation
Stretch-Shorten¡ng Cycle Exercise
C. Bosco, l. Tarkka, and P.V. Komi
Department of Biology of Physical Act¡vity, University of Jyväskylä, SF-40100 Jyväskylä 10, Finland
Abstract
C. Bosco. L
Tarkka, and P.V. Komi, Effect of Elastic Energy and
Myoelectrical Potentation of Triceps Surae During Stretch-
Shortenlng Cycle Exercise. lnt J Sports Med, Vol 3, No 3,
pp 137-140,1982.
Stretching of an activated muscle prior to its shortening enhances
its performance dur¡ng the concentric contraction, This phenome-
non has been interpreted to be primarily duo tc the utilization -of
elastic energy s1Ðred in the series elastic elements of the muscle
during the stretch, However, reflex potentation has also been sug-
gested as an additional cause for performance increase. To examine
this hypothesis f ive subjects performed maximal vertical jumps on
a force platform from two different starting positions: (a) maximal
plantar flexion from a static position (SJ) (pure concentric contrac-
tion), (b) a toe-stand¡ng pos¡tion with preliminary counter-move-
ment (CMJ). ln th¡s condition the calf muscles were actively
stretched before concentric work. ln both conditions the knee and
hip ioints were fixed. The results indicated that the utilization of
the stretch-shortening cycle enhanced the performance over that
of the pure concentric contraction (P < 0.001). Similarly, the
EMG recording demonstrated that in all f ive subjects the myoelec-
trical activity of the calf muscles (mm. gastrocnemius and soleus)
was potentiated during the concentric phase in CMJ when com-
pared to SJ (P < 0.001 ). Therefore, the increase in performance
was attributed to a combination of utilization of elastic energy
and _myoelectrical potentiation of muscle act¡vation.
Key words: muscle mechanics, elastic energy, myoelectrical
potent¡ation, stretch-shortening cycle
Introduction
During the stretch of an activated muscle, mechanical enet-
gy is absorbed by the muscle, and this energy can be sub-
sequently reutilized if the shortening of the muscle imme-
diately follows the stretch (7,8, 11). This energy is stored
in the form of elastic energy, and recently clear evidence
has been provided by animal and human experiments that
the reutilization of the elastic recoil enhances muscular
performance (3, J, 8, I 1). In most of the experiments in
human subjects with the neryous system intact, the im-
proved performance was attributed solely to the recoil of
elastic energy. However, suggestions have been given that
myoelectrical potentiation could also add to the total per-
formance potentiation during the stretch-shortening cycle
(5). Recently Bosco et al. (6) were able to demonstrate
the combined existence of both myoelectrical potentiation
and elastic recoil. Flowever, because of the complexity of
the motion employed (multijoint activity) in that study,
the present investigation was undertaken to study the same
phenomenon in a simpler movement. For this reason, verti-
cal jumps involving only the ankle joint movement wete
selected as test movements.
131
Int. J. Sports Med. 3 (1982) 137-140
@ Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart . New York
of Triceps Surae During
Methods
Subjects
Five physical education students (age: 29 + 4.3 years;
height: 173.6 ! 8.5 cm; weight: 7O.2 ! 10.9 kg) partici-
pated in the experiment, which consisted of performing
vertical jumps on the force platform (12) from two differ-
ent starting positions:
a) The subjects were instructed to perform maximal plantar
flexion from a static position (the heel flat on the force
platform). This condition is called a squatting jump (SJ)
and was performed as a pure concentric contraction.
b) The second jump was performed from a toe-standing
position with a preliminary counter-movement (CMJ). In
this condition the calf muscles were actively stretched be-
fore the concentric work began.
To ensure that the performance was executed by the calf
muscles only, both the knee and hip joints were fixed with
an orthopaedic cast, thus allowing no movement.
Each jump produced a vertical force-time curve, examples
of which are given in Fig. 1. The force-time curve and
the flight time (t¿i¡¡ gave tJre basis for calculation of the
following mechanical parametets: vertical velocity at take-
o[(Vd and the average force developed during eccentric
(-F) and concentric (F) work (for details, see ref. 3). The
range of movement of the ankle joint was varied because
several jumps were performed with the force platform
inclinated by 15'; thus, the working length of the calf
muscles during both SJ and CMJ was shortened and
lengthened according to the position assumed by the sub-
jects. To examine the movement amplitude, an electro-
goniometer (Elgon) was attached to the lateral side of the
subject's ankle joint. Elgon recorded the angular displace-
ment with a resulting range from 28o to 55o. To study
the influence of the nervous activation, EMG activity from
mm. soleus and gastrocnemius lateralis were recorded with
surface electrodes (Beckman miniature skin electrodes)
and integrated separately for the eccentric and concentric
phases of the jump and expressed for a period of I s. The
total43 jumps both in SJ and CMJ performed by all the
subjects were selected according to the similar range of
movement (t Z") in the ankle joint. In the statistiõal treat-
ment of these samples, Student's f test and Pearson's cor-
relation coefficient were employed.
Results
In presenting the results, comparison is made in perform-
ance between SJ and CMJ conditions, which utilized simi-
138 Int. J. Sports Med. 3 (1982) C. Bosco, I. Tarkka, and P.V. Komi

SJ
TAKE
I
OFF
fr t1

t
I
FORCE I CMJ TAKE.OFF
I I

+-
l.-
w IF!!_cr{ _
UW

EMG

ANGLE

o
time

Fig, 1 Example of vertical force-time curve (above), electromyographic activity of the soleus muscle (middle), and knee angular displace-
mãnt (below) dur¡ng vertical ,jump performed from a static position (SJ) (leftl and counter-movement jump (CMJ) (right)' The shaded area
represents the moment when the muscles are actively stretched.

lar movement around the ankle joint during the concentric

work phase. In all conditions, the height of rise of the
body's center of gravity in SJ (mean 3.0 I 0.8 cm) was lfÏ.n,, ¡.,*"",
signifîcantly (P < 0.001) lower than that in CMJ (3.9 t 1.2 gostrocnemius L
m.
cm). Similarly, the average force demonstrated greater mag' Çl
nitude (P < 0.001) in CMJ (mean 488 t 130 N) than in 300

SJ (mean 228 t 47 N). The IEMG activity of mm. soleus

and gastrocnemius lateralis demonstrated similar patterns
of activation (Fig. 2). Therefore, the activities of both the
muscles were combined (Fig. 3). From Fig. 3 it can be 200

seen that as compared to the SJ condition the IEMG activi'

ty of the triceps surae during the positive work phase was
greater in CMJ (P < 0.001). A positive relationship was ob-
served (r = 0.41) (P < 0.01) (Fig. a) when the average 100

force (AF) differences between CMJ and SJ conditions

were correlated to ttre respective differences in IEMG ac'
tivity (AIEMG).

Discussion SJ CMJ CMJ

The difference in the height of rise of the center of gravity

and average positive force between CMJ and SJ is in agree-
ment with earlier findings under similar experimental con-
ditions (3 , 5 , 9, I 1). In addition to showing the existence
of elastic potentiation, the present results support the
recent findings of Bosco et al. (6), who attributed the en-
hancement in the stretch-shortening cycle exercise to the
combined effect of recoil of elastic energy and myoelectri'
cal potentiation. However, the authors were able to demon-
Fig. 2 lntegrated EMG recorded from mm. soleus and gastrocne-
mius lateralis for the positive phase of SJ and negative and pos¡tive
phases of CMJ,
strate only a slight effect of myoelectrical potentiation.
This was attributed to the problems of two-joint muscles
(e.g., rectus femoris) when the vertical jump was performed
without fixation of the hip and knee joints, Therefore, it
Effect of Elastic Energy and Myoelectrical Potentiation Int. J. Sports Med. 3 (1982) I39
a
IEMG AIEMG CMJ . SJ
700 (pVx s ) 600 ( uV's)
a

600
I 1SE 500
P<.0
r .t1
p 0l a
500 n ¿3 a
P(O0l 400 aa

¿00
300 a
o a
a a
300 a a o
200
a a a
ao a
200
100 a a tt. a a
o o
o a
100 a
a
0 a a a AF (N)
a
-50
SJ CMJ 0 100 200 300 400 500

Fig.4 The difference of average force (AF) between CMJ and SJ

is plotted against the difference of integrated EMG (alEMG) be-
tween CMJ and SJ.

IEMG ,/ FORCE
(orbitrory units )

AVERAGE FORCE I
1 000 (Nl 20

Ito P(
10
500

Fig.5 IEMG/average
force ratio of the calf
muscles during SJ and
SJ CMJ CMJ cond¡tions.

SJ CMJ

Fig, 3 lntegrated EMG recorded from mm, soleus and gastrocnemi

us lateralis for SJ and CMJ (upper panel). Average force calculated CMJ-SJ
for the positive phase of SJ and negative and positive phases in
CMJ (lower panel), AF
300 (N)

Fig, 6 Schematic pres-

was somewhat easier to demonstrate a clear myoelectrical entation of the poten-
potentiation in the present experiment (Fig. 3), when a 200
tiation effect as esti-
mated from the average
single joint movement was utilized. This EMG potentiation
W¡l force difference (ÂF)
contributed to the improvement of the mechanical behav- (between CMJ and SJ)
ior of the calf muscles, as can be observed from the rela- separately for myo-
tionships found between AF and AIEMG (Fig. 4). How- 100 electrical potentiation
(AIEMG) and recoil of
ever, the contribution to the enhanced performance of the
elastic energy (WE¡),
concentric work in CMJ from the recoil of elastic energy AIEMG Calculation assumes
is also demonstrated in Fig. 5, which shows that to devel- linearity between IEMG
op the same amount of force in the concentric phase of and force.
CMJ, a smaller amount of IEMG was necessary. This is in
agreement with earlier findings when pure concentric and that the force developed during the concentric work of
eccentric contractions were compared (e.g., refs. l, 2, l0). CMJ is linearly related to the IEMG activity (e.g., ref. 4),
Although it does not seem difficult to attribute the en- then it is possible to separate the effect of both restitution
hancement of the performance in CMJ to the combined of elastic energy and myoelectrical potentiation. In the
effect of myoelectrical activity and restitution of elastic present sfudy, values of 72Vo and 28% could be calculated,
energy, a more difficult task is to estimate the relative respectively, for the elastic and myoelectrical potentiations
contribution of the two mechanisms. Assuming, however, (Fig. 6).
 140 Int. J. Sports Med. 3 (1982)
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C. Bosco, Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyväskylä, SF-40100 lyvöskylä 10, Finland
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C. Bosco, I. Tarkka, and P.V. Komi
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