Active leg stiness and energy stored in the muscles during

maximal counter movement jump in the aged

Yu Liu
a,
*
, Chien-Hua Peng
a
, Shun-Hwa Wei
b
, Jung-Chun Chi
c
,
Feng-Ren Tsai
d
, Jia-Yean Chen
a
a
Department of Kinesiology, Chinese Culture University, 55, Hwa Kang Road, Yang-Ming-Shan, Taipei, Taiwan
b
Department of Physical Therapy, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
c
Department of Physical Education, National Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
d
Department of Physical Education, National United University, Miaoli, Taiwan
Received 3 December 2004; received in revised form 21 May 2005; accepted 9 July 2005
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the eects of age on active leg stiness adjustment, electromyogram (EMG) activities
and energy stored during eccentric and concentric phases in performing a maximal functional task involving stretch-shorten cycle.
Ten young (24.3 2 years) and 10 old (68.6 5 years) healthy male subjects were lmed during maximal performance of counter
movement jump (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) on force plate. Integrated EMG (IEMG), ground reaction force (GRF), active leg sti-
ness, energy stored/returned and active work done by the muscles were compared between two groups on eccentric (ECC) and con-
centric (CON) phases of CMJ. The GRF, leg stiness and energy stored in ECC and GRF, IEMG, energy returned and active work
in CON were less in the elderly (p < 0.05). These results demonstrate that the neuromuscular function of adjusting active stiness,
storing elastic energy and optimizing the performance may decrease with age during CMJ.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Active leg stiness; Energy storage; Aging; Counter-movement jump
1. Introduction
Older people experience an increased susceptibility to
falls, which is one of the major factors jeopardizing their
health [4,5]. Numerous studies have demonstrated that
weaker or decreased muscle strength of the lower limb
links has associations in the elderly with the risk of fall-
ing [29,30,34,43]. Other studies suggested that older peo-
ple with the history of falling have high age-related
muscle/joint stiness or a lower range of motion, in
comparison with older people who do not have a history
of falling [17,34,39]. Though muscle strength and con-
traction speed decreasing with age may aect the capacity
of rapidly producing the force of balance, the age-
related joint/muscle stiness probably play a more
important role than decreased muscle strength to re-
spond to perturbations [1]. It has been well documented
that the stiness involving the response of passive prop-
erties is higher for the older mammals [2,12,13,15,40,41].
These passive properties alone cannot stabilize the bal-
ance in functional activities which require active muscle
stiness [10,42]. In an active muscle, the total stiness of
the musculoskeletal system is contributed by passive
stiness, intrinsic stiness, and reex stiness [6,36,37].
During muscle contraction, the active muscle stiness
being proportional to the generated force and muscle
1050-6411/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jelekin.2005.08.001
*
Corresponding author: Tel.: +886 2 28610511x617; fax: +886 2
28617084.
E-mail address: yliu@faculty.pccu.edu.tw (Y. Liu).
www.elsevier.com/locate/jelekin
Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351
activation can be modulated voluntarily by activating
muscles and neural feedback gain [14,18,33]. As Houk
[21] suggested, the rst protective mechanism mediating
the motor reactions to perturbation is the regulation of
stiness. Thus, active muscle stiness plays a crucial roll
in the stabilization of balance to prevent falling [16,32]
especially for the elderly.
Many studies have focused on the issues of muscle
stiness contributing to postural stability, motor perfor-
mance and age or gender dierences as risk factors for
injury or falling. The overall muscle stiness is derived
from passive and active properties; whereas the passive
stiness is reected by passive tissue, such as tendons
and ligaments, the active stiness referring to active
muscles and joints can be voluntarily controlled [44].
As measuring and dierentiating active stiness from
passive stiness is a complex task, in addition, muscle
activation levels can lead to dierent results. Zatsiorsky
[44] suggested that the measurements make sense only
if the level of activation and its time course is specied,
for instance, under conditions of maximal voluntary
contraction. Therefore, in an active muscle, the sti-
ness is always motor-task-specic and time-dependent
which is named apparent stiness by Zatsiorsky. It
is perceivable that the counter movement jump (CMJ)
is a functional task involving maximal voluntary con-
traction and stretch-shorten cycle (SSC) combining both
eccentric and concentric actions, whereas the unique
activation strategies by the nervous system in eccentric
contraction can be observed [11]. Therefore, based on
the concept suggested by Zatsiorsky, the purpose of this
study was to examine the eects of age on active leg sti-
ness adjustment, electromyogram (EMG) activities and
energy stored during eccentric and concentric phases
in performing a maximal functional task involving
stretch-shorten cycle. In this paper, we examined active
stiness adjustment, ground reaction force (GRF), and
the EMG activity of rectus femoris (RF) and biceps
femoris (BF) as well as energy stored and returned dur-
ing eccentric and concentric action phases of CMJ.
2. Methods
2.1. Subjects
Twenty healthy male subjects 10 elderly (age:
68.6 5 years; height: 165.3 4.4 cm; mass: 61.7
9.3 kg) and 10 young (age: 24.3 2 years; height:
171.5 4.6 cm; mass: 65.9 8 kg) voluntarily partici-
pated in this study. All subjects were physically active
with exercise 23 times a week and without the problems
of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, arthritis and rheumatism
in the lower extremities, or any neurological disorder,
falls requiring hospitalization in past 10 years. A physi-
cians approval to participate in this experiment for each
subject was provided. All experimental procedures ap-
proved by local ethical committee and the purpose of
this study were clearly explained to each subject who
was then required to sign an informed consent form.
2.2. Equipment and devices
Biovision EMG System (Biovision, Wehrheim, Ger-
many) was used to record the EMG signals from the
RF and BF muscles of each subjects right leg. The elec-
trodes were placed on the middle of anterior thigh (half
distance between the knee and the iliac spine) for RF
and on the middle of the distance the gluteal fold and
popliteal joint which were based on Cram, Kasman
and Holtzs standardized electrode placements [7]. The
skin was abraded and cleaned, and bipolar electrodes
were fastened over the muscle with a center-to-center
distance of 3 cm. A reference electrode was placed on
the right bular head. Signals were analog processed
with a dierential amplier (bandwidth = 10700 Hz,
input impedance = 1012 X, common mode rejection ra-
tio = 120 dB at 60 Hz, and gain is adjustable for 1000,
2500 and 5000).
A Kistler 9281 force plate (Kistler Instrumente AG,
Winterthur, Switzerland) was used to record the GRF
while the subjects performed the CMJ and the squat
jump (SJ).
The signals of consecutive EMG and the ground
reaction force were simultaneously collected and prelim-
inarily analyzed with a data acquisition system (Biovi-
son, Wehrheim, Germany) and DasyLab (version 5.6)
software (DATALOG GmbH, Moenchengladbach,
Germany) at 1200 Hz sampling frequency. All data were
then transformed and analyzed using Origin 6.0 soft-
ware (Microcal Software, Inc., Northampton, MA,
USA).
The kinematic data of subjects CMJ and SJ were re-
corded and digitized with a Peak Performance Motion
Analysis System at 120 Hz (Peak Performance Technol-
ogies, Englewood, CO, USA). The camera was placed
10 m from the subject and its optical axis was 90 in rela-
tion to the subjects sagittal plane. High frequency digi-
tizing errors were removed from the position data with a
Butterworth low-pass lter (4th order zero lag) using a
cuto frequency of about 7 Hz. The kinematic data were
than interpolated to 1200 Hz (points/s) in order to be
identical with force and EMG signals.
2.3. Experimental protocol
All subjects performed the SJ and CMJ with maximal
eort on the force platform. The SJ was performed as
reference for EMG normalization the subject was asked
to begin in a squatted position at the knee angle of
approximately 90, hold that position for 12 s, and
then jump into the air with maximal eort. For the
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351 343
CMJ, the subject was instructed to start in an upright
position, rapidly squat down and then jump into the
air with maximal eort. Subjects arms were positioned
akimbo to the side of the body in order to eliminate
the eect resulting from arm swing during the perfor-
mance of each jump. In each session, three trials were
conducted with 1 min rests in-between trials. For safety,
an experienced assistant stood alongside each subject
while performing the test to prevent injury.
2.4. Data recording and analysis
For both SJ and CMJ, only the best record of three
trials was selected for analyzing. In order to perform
quantiable analysis of the data in the CMJ, the move-
ment was divided into two phases: eccentric and concen-
tric action phases.
The eccentric action phase was dened as the time
interval from the beginning of the movement (t
0
) to
the instant of the lowest position of the body center of
mass (COM) (t
1
). Following the eccentric phase, the
concentric action phase was dened as the time interval
from the lowest position of the body COM (t
1
) to the
take-o (t
2
) of the CMJ. The time events, t
0
, t
1
and t
2
,
could be determined exactly by the GRF, the vertical
velocity and displacement of the COM. The vertical
velocity and displacement of the COM were derived
from GRF by rst (see Eq. (2)) and second integrating,
respectively. The CMJ begins from a static position at
which the vertical displacement and velocity of the
COM are equal to zero, and moves downward to the
lowest position of the COM, at which the vertical veloc-
ity becomes to zero again. At the moment of take-o,
the GRF is equal to zero.
The EMG signals were band-pass ltered (10
400 Hz) and then full-wave rectied. The EMG signals
were normalized to those of SJ, which was considered
as the maximum value. The root mean square (RMS)
values of each muscle group were calculated for every
20 ms during the support phase of the SJ. The peak
RMS value was used to represent the normalizing value
(100%). All EMG readings were normalized as a per-
centage of the maximum value.
The lower extremity was dened as the anatomical
structure between the lateral malleolus and the hip joint
of the leg. Leg displacement (Dl) was computed as the
dierence between the leg length and the vertical dis-
tance between the lateral malleolus and the hip joint at
the moment of the lowest position of the COM.
Leg stiness during the CMJ was dened in two
ways: (1) F
i
/Dl, and (2) F
i
/Dy, where F
i
is the ground
reaction force at the transition from the eccentric to con-
centric action (lowest position of COM); Dl is the leg
displacement from the beginning of the movement to
the lowest position of the COM; Dy is the maximum ver-
tical displacement of the COM for the same duration,
namely the dierence between the height of the COM
at the beginning of the movement and the height of
the lowest position of the COM. Since there was no dif-
ference between the stiness obtained by the two deni-
tions and the correlation coecient between them
reached 0.98 (p < 0.01) in this study, the data of the sec-
ond denition were chosen, namely F
i
/Dy as the stiness
parameter, because it can be easily obtained solely by
GRF analyzed with force platform. Displacement Dy
was given as the percentage of the subjects body height.
The energy stored in the muscles of the lower extrem-
ities during the eccentric phase of the CMJ was com-
puted by integrating the GRFdisplacement curve
from zero displacement (t
0
) to maximum displacement
(t
1
) (shadow part in Fig. 1). We dened the start point
of the COM during CMJ as zero displacement and the
lowest position of the COM as the maximum displace-
ment. The energy returned by the muscles of the lower
extremities during the concentric phase of the CMJ
was dened as the integration of the GRFdisplacement
curve from maximum displacement (t
1
) to the point of
GRF = 0, i.e., the instant of take-o (t
2
). The dierence
between the energy returned and the energy stored was
expressed as the active work done by the muscles of
the lower extremities, showed as the white part in Fig. 1.
The energy changes can also be described by the fol-
lowing equations:
Energy stored
Z
t
1
t
0
F
R
t v
c
t dt; 1
where F
R
(t) is the GRF time curve measured by the
force platform; v
c
(t) the velocity time curve of the body
-0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
t
2
t
1
t
0
Active work done
by the muscles
Energy stored
in muscles
G
R
F

[
B
W
]
Displacement of COM [m]
Fig. 1. Ground reaction force vs. vertical displacement of center of
mass during the CMJ. The start point of the movement was dened as
zero value on the x-axis. t
0
at the beginning of the CMJ; t
1
at the
lowest position of the body COM; t
2
at the take-o. The energy
stored during the eccentric phase (shadow part) and the energy
returned during the concentric phase was computed by the integration
of this curve. The dierence between the energy returned and the
energy stored was expressed as the active work done, showed as the
white part.
344 Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351
COM derived from GRF by rst integrating (Eq. (2)); t
0
the time at the beginning of the CMJ; t
1
the time at the
lowest position of the COM; and t
2
the time at take-o.
The energy returned from the muscles is equal to the
integration (Eq. (1)) with the time interval from t
1
to t
2
.
Active work done = energy returned energy stored.
The velocity time curve of the body COM:
v
c
t
1
m
Z
t
t
0
F
R
t mg dt; 2
where m is the body mass; g is the acceleration due to
gravity.
Because the GRF is positive and the velocity of the
COM is negative in the eccentric phase, the energy
stored in the muscles is also called negative work. In
the concentric phase, both the GRF and the velocity
are positive, so the energy returned by the muscles is
also called positive work.
2.5. Statistical analysis
The Students t-test was used to determine dierences
across leg stiness, IEMG of RF and BF, energy stored
and returned, active work done, displacement of COM
and jumping height between two groups. In addition,
the Pearson correlation coecient was used to establish
relationships between leg stiness and energy data. Level
of signicance for all analysis was set to p < 0.05. The
data were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS, version 8.0) (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL,
USA).
3. Results
3.1. Eccentric action phase
Typical time histories of the GRF, vertical displace-
ment of the COM, normalized and full-wave rectied
EMG activities of RF and BF muscles are shown in
Fig. 2 for an older and a young subject performing the
CMJ, which includes eccentric (ECC) and concentric
(CON) action phases. The GRF decreased during the
rst 1/3 of the eccentric phase and reached its minimum
value. From the minimum of GRF to the maximum of
vertical displacement, the GRF and displacement both
increased gradually. The lower extremity behaved like
a spring and the leg stiness remained almost constant
in this period (see T1 in Fig. 3). In present study, the ra-
tio of GRF/displacement at the moment of maximum
vertical displacement was the average leg stiness, which
was much greater for young subjects than old subjects
during CMJ (Table 1).
Table 1 lists the GRF, leg stiness, movement time,
IEMG and energy data of young and old subjects for
eccentric action and concentric action phase. During
0.0 0.2 0.4
0
100
200
0
100
200
-0.3
0.0
0
1
2
3
t
2
t
1
t
0 CON ECC
E
M
G

[
%
]
[
m
]
[
B
W
]
Time [s]
Old
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6
0
100
200
0
100
200
0
1
2
3
-0.4
0.0
Time [s]
CON ECC
Young
t
2
t
1
t
0
BF
RF
VD
GRF
Fig. 2. Time histories of the GRF, vertical displacement (VD) of the COM, normalized and full-wave rectied EMG activities of rectus femoris (RF),
biceps femoris (BF) while an older (left) and young subject (right) performed the CMJ. The start of the movement was dened as zero displacement.
ECC eccentric phase, CON concentric phase. t
0
at the beginning of the CMJ; t
1
at the lowest position of the body COM; t
2
at the take-o.
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351 345
the eccentric phase of the CMJ test, the leg stiness were
29.3% less in the old group (p < 0.05) (Fig. 4); the range
of motion (ROM) which was dened as the maximal
vertical displacement of body COM, was also signi-
cantly smaller for the old subjects. The energy stored
during the eccentric phase of the CMJ in the old subjects
was 21.5% less than in the young subjects (p < 0.05)
(Fig. 5). No signicant dierence was found in the
movement time and the EMG activities between two
groups.
3.2. Concentric action phase
Comparing the concentric phase with the eccentric
phase, we found that the IEMG of RF and BF muscles
were signicantly (p < 0.05) dierent between the two
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6
0
1
2
3
-0.4
-0.2
0.0
0.2
0
25
50
F
i
G
R
F
[
B
W
]
Time [s]
y
V
D

[
m
]
T1
S
t
i
f
f
n
.

[
k
N
m
-
1
]
Fig. 3. Leg stiness (Stin.), vertical displacement of COM (VD) and GRF plots as function of time. The leg stiness was calculated as the ratio of
GRF to vertical displacement (VD), namely GRF/VD. T1 is the time interval from the minimum of GRF to the maximum of vertical displacement,
in which the lower extremity behaved like a spring and the variation of leg stiness was considerably small. In present study, we dened the leg
stiness as instantaneous value of F
i
/Dy, where Dy is the maximum vertical displacement of the COM and F
i
is the GRF at that moment.
Table 1
The GRF, leg stiness, IEMG and energy data during the CMJ testing for old and young subjects
Young (n = 10) Old (n = 10) Di. % P value
Mean S.D. Mean S.D.
Jumping height (m) 0.47 0.08 0.21 0.04 55.3 0.028
*
GRFi/BW 2.43 0.22 1.85 0.24 23.8 0.001
*
Displ. of COM (m) 0.39 0.05 0.32 0.08 17.9 0.028
*
Leg stiness (kN/m) 2.44 0.52 1.72 0.78 29.3 0.006
*
Eccentric phase
Time (s) 0.580 0.086 0.598 0.101 3.1 0.720
IEMG RF (%s) 15.6 11.9 13.1 4.2 16.0 0.077
IEMG BF (%s) 11.1 5.3 5.7 1.0 48.6 0.052
Energy stored (J) 248.9 35.0 195.4 68.7 21.5 0.024
*
Concentric phase
Time (s) 0.297 0.023 0.334 0.061 12.5 0.036
*
Maximal GRF/BW 2.54 0.18 2.00 0.18 21.3 0.001
*
IEMG RF (%s) 39.9 21.0 14.9 7.0 62.7 0.030
*
IEMG BF (%s) 32.7 18.6 8.0 3.5 75.5 0.025
*
Energy returned (J) 614.2 81.3 380.7 105.1 38.0 0.001
*
Active work done (J) 365.1 60.7 185.4 44.1 49.2 0.001
*
Di. % percentage dierence between the data of older and younger subjects divided by the data of younger subjects; GRFi the ratio of the
ground reaction force at the transition from an eccentric to concentric contraction (the lowest position of the COM); BW body weight; IEMG the
integration of normalized EMG activity in the time window of the eccentric and concentric phase during CMJ; RF, BF rectus femoris, biceps
femoris.
*
A signicant dierence (p < 0.05).
346 Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 16 (2006) 342351
groups, the elder group had signicantly less IEMG of
RF and BF than young group. The energy returned
(Fig. 6) and so that the active work done by the muscles
for old subjects were signicantly less than that for the
young subjects during the concentric phase (p < 0.05).
Additionally, the normalized maximal GRF and
height of jumping were found signicantly less
(p < 0.05) in the elder group.
3.3. Correlation analysis
Analyzing the correlation among the leg stiness,
EMG and energy data, the results showed a signicant
correlation (r = 0.63, p < 0.05) between leg stiness
and active work done by the muscles of the lower
extremities for both young and elder subjects. Based
on classical mechanics, the energy stored and returned
of a passive elastic body is related to the stiness of
the body.
4. Discussion
It is clear that aging decreases movement capabilities
which is contributed partly by decreased muscle
strength, muscle mass [30,34,43], range of motion (ex-
ibility) and rate of tension development [8]. The GRF
acting on the feet during the CMJ embodies the ability
of the neuromuscular system to produce strength in
the lower extremities. The leg stiness was determined
by the GRF and the vertical displacement of the COM
at the transition from the eccentric to concentric phase
during the CMJ. The major ndings of the present study
was that the elderly comparing to young subjects per-
formed maximal voluntary CMJ with substantially low-
er leg stiness, smaller GRF and displacement of the
COM. It is interesting to note that this age-related dier-
ence in stiness was driven by the dierence in GRF and
not by displacement, even though the displacement of
the COM was also dierent between the two groups.
This result showing less stiness in old people agrees
with the previous investigation of lower dynamic joint
stiness [27], but disagrees with the results of signi-
cantly higher stiness in plantarexors [2] and in the
lower extremities while stepping down [19,20]. Studies
have shown that both stiness and active control con-
tribute to stabilizing balance and restoring force to pre-
vent falling [16,32], while increased passive stiness or
less range of motion related to aging has been cited as
a crucial risk factor in falling [17,34,40]. During a spe-
cic motor-task, for example stepping down, the results
cannot reect the ability of the neuromuscular system to
adjust active leg stiness, i.e., the ability of leg muscles
to produce forces per unit length change. The motor
reactions are initiated by adjusting stiness to the exter-
nal perturbations; the observed stiness could be pas-
sively generated by task-specic activity. Thus the
passive stiness may contribute predominately to the
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Old
Young

S
t
i
f
f
n
e
s
s

[
k
N
m
-
1
]
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
]
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

[
J
]
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
0.5
1.0
1.5
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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