Measuring of Skeletal Muscles' Dynamic Properties

Many studies have been completed to determine how muscles work. One of theaspects to study is the muscle response and how to measure it. The main aim ofthisstudy was to build a noninvasive measuring system that would be simple to useand would measure the muscle response as close to the muscle as possible. Themeasuring method wasbased on a magnetic displacement sensor measuring the muscle belly response.The sensor was placed adjacent to the skin over the muscle and measured radialmovements of the musclebelly. The muscle response to single twitch electrical stimulation wasmeasured. Different skeletal muscles or muscle groups have differentbiomechanical characteristics. The risetime of the muscle belly response was the characteristic parameter for thisstudy. The comparison of muscles' responses in terms of the values of theirnormalized rise timeparameters confirmed their identities as slow or fast muscles. The value of thenormalized rise time parameter of a slow muscle was four times less than thevalue of the parameterof a fast muscle. Although the question remains as to how the availablemeasuring techniques provide estimations of skeletal muscles' dynamicproperties, this proposed measuringmethod contributes to a better understanding of skeletal muscles' dynamicproperties. It offers a possible way of studying the muscle structure from themuscle's response to electrical stimulation in a simple noninvasive way.