Characterization of arm muscle activity levels during cycling at various relative workloads

Abstract

Arm cycling is an effective mode of rehabilitation, exercise, and transportation. Previous studies aimed at examining the neuromuscular control of arm cycling typically use a standard workload (e.g. 25W) as opposed to relative workloads for each participant. This may be problematic given that many measures of neuromuscular excitability are intensity-dependent and a standard workload likely represents different effort levels for each participant. The purpose of this study was to examine and characterize the arm muscles during arm cycling at various relative workloads. While the present thesis is not a detailed examination of the neuromuscular physiology of arm cycling it may be an important step in normalizing the manner in which arm cycling studies are performed, by determining how the muscles respond to increases in relative workloads during arm cycling. With the use of surface electromyography, it is possible to determine an appropriate relative workload. This will allow us to improve current basic research examining the neural control of arm cycling and may also be important for rehabilitative and therapeutic practices for individuals with a neurological injury or impairment.