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This research examined the influence on performance of no-pause and mean delays of 0.97 s and 1.5 s between the eccentric and concentric phases of the stretch-shorten cycle movement of internal rotation (IR) of me upper arm. Videography and surface electromyography were used in the assessment of 19 athletes throwing a baseball in a manner that constrained all degrees of freedom other than upper-arm IR. Results demonstrated that the pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, and anterior deltoid muscles were all active at above 100% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) during IR. The maximum velocity of the wrist decreased with increasing pause time between me eccentric and concentric phases of the IR movement. A mean 21.9% augmentation to the maximum wrist velocity was recorded when the no-pause delay and a mean delay of 1.5 s were compared. There were no electromyographically discernible differences recorded either prior to or after release for any of the monitored muscles during IR across the pause conditions. It is evident therefore that the benefits of a prestretch during external rotation (ER) have a significant influence on the subsequent velocity of IR.

This paper provides an overview of forward dynamic neuromusculoskeletal modeling. The aim of such models is to estimate or predict muscle forces, joint moments, and/or joint kinematics from neural signals. This is a four-step process. In the first step, muscle activation dynamics govern the transformation from the neural signal to a measure of muscle activation—a time varying parameter between 0 and 1. In the second step, muscle contraction dynamics characterize how muscle activations are transformed into muscle forces. The third step requires a model of the musculoskeletal geometry to transform muscle forces to joint moments. Finally, the equations of motion allow joint moments to be transformed into joint movements. Each step involves complex nonlinear relationships. The focus of this paper is on the details involved in the first two steps, since these are the most challenging to the biomechanician. The global process is then explained through applications to the study of predicting isometric elbow moments and dynamic knee kinetics.

Cartilage material properties provide important insights into joint health, and cartilage material models are used in whole-joint finite element models. Although the biphasic model representing experimental creep indentation tests is commonly used to characterize cartilage, cartilage short-term response to loading is generally not characterized using the biphasic model. The purpose of this study was to determine the short-term and equilibrium material properties of human patella cartilage using a viscoelastic model representation of creep indentation tests. We performed 24 experimental creep indentation tests from 14 human patellar specimens ranging in age from 20 to 90 years (median age 61 years). We used a finite element model to reproduce the experimental tests and determined cartilage material properties from viscoelastic and biphasic representations of cartilage. The viscoelastic model consistently provided excellent representation of the short-term and equilibrium creep displacements. We determined initial elastic modulus, equilibrium elastic modulus, and equilibrium Poisson’s ratio using the viscoelastic model. The viscoelastic model can represent the short-term and equilibrium response of cartilage and may easily be implemented in whole-joint finite element models.