Applications

SEMG can be used in sports medicine applications to monitor an athlete's recovery time, improve strength training techniques, assist with performance evaluations, and much more. Noraxon's SEMG equipment interfaces with additional modalities, such as force plates, transducers and video displays in order to capture motion and its causative forces. The following applications outline numerous areas where SEMG can be used in sports medicine applications to measure and increase athletic performance:

General Performance Enhancement

• Use muscles more efficiently.
• Use correct and appropriate muscles.

Establish Baseline Data

• Establish baseline data for healthy professionals and amateur athletes to measure against previous performance in the event of an injury.

Injury Rehabilitation

• Monitor rehabilitation in order to determine when the muscle is functioning correctly.

Muscle Imbalance

• An athlete may over-compensate (use one muscle group too much in order to make up for the lack of use of another group) or not use the correct muscle group at all. This may cause the athlete to be more prone to injury.

Sports Rehabilitation

• Screen for muscle imbalances that may increase risk of injury.
• Identify the “bottle neck” while performing (i.e. which muscle is the first muscle to show signs of fatigue or takes longest to recover).
• Select the most effective training/rehabilitation exercise and optimizing its frequency and intensity (i.e. expediting or modifying of rehabilitation progression based on individual responses).
• Compare the effects of various ways of taping or bracing (i.e. finding the best model and adjustment for a knee brace).
• Re-educate after injury / surgery or correction of an otherwise faulty activation pattern (i.e. assuring proper activation of stabilizing muscles prior to more sports specific rehab or strength training) reducing risk of re-injury.
• Minimize post-operative problems in rehabilitation (McHugh, Biomechanics 1999).