The shortening of parasternal intercostal muscles (Para) and crural (Cru) and costal diaphragms (Cos) are not precisely understood. We therefore examined shortening patterns of these inspiratory muscles by using chronically implanted sonomicrometers in dogs. To avoid acute effects of surgery, measurements were performed 3 weeks after implanting the sonomicrometers. Patterns of length changes of...

Background & objectives: Benches play a basic role in students sitting in the correct posture for a long period. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ergonomics of common school benches on the electrical activity of selected muscles of healthy female students or with lumbar lordosis. Methods: For this purpose, 24 students with an average age of 10.26±1.78 years were selec...

Purpose: In approaching full trunk flexion (75%-80% of full flexion), myoelectric activity of lumbar erector spinae muscles is reduced or silenced; this response is known as flexion-relaxation phenomenon (FRP). FRP is a shift in load sharing and spinal stabilization from active structures (erector spinae muscles) to passive ligamentous and articular structures. Static lumbar flexi...

context low back pain (lbp) is among the most prevalent musculoskeletal conditions in the developed countries. it is a common problem causing disability and imposing a huge economic burden to individuals and state organizations. imaging plays an important role in diagnosis of the etiology of lbp. evidence acquisition the electronic databases included: pubmed (1950 to present), ovid sp medline (...

INTRODUCTION An unstable spine is clinically defined as the state of excessive spinal motion beyond the normal physiological limits. Muscles play an important role to provide the spinal movement and to maintain the spinal stability by increasing the bending stiffness at the same time. The issues of spinal stability controlled by the active muscular system are complicated since the numbers of mu...

OBJECTIVE To use transcranial magnetic stimulation and electromyography to assess the potential for preserved function in the abdominal muscles in individuals classified with motor-complete spinal cord injury above T6. SUBJECTS Five individuals with spinal cord injury (C5-T3) and 5 able-bodied individuals. METHODS Transcranial magnetic stimulation was delivered over the abdominal region of ...

Body posture defined by Kutzner-Kozińskiej depends on 3 groups of factors: morphological, functional and environmental. First group indicates that musculo-skeletal-ligament system cooperates (supports) with nervous system. Functional factors are connected with movement habits whereas environmental ones relate to surroundings [1, 2]. To keep upright position posture muscles are required to coope...

Cervical spinal loads are predominately influenced by activities of cervical muscles. However, the coordination between deep and superficial muscles and their influence on the spinal loads is not well understood. This study aims to document the changes of cervical spinal loads and the differential contributions of superficial and deep muscles with varying head postures. Electromyography (EMG) o...

To evaluate the effect of short-duration, high-load resistive exercise, with and without whole body vibration on lumbar muscle size, intervertebral disk and spinal morphology changes, and low back pain (LBP) incidence during prolonged bed rest, 24 subjects underwent 60 days of head-down tilt bed rest and performed either resistive vibration exercise (n = 7), resistive exercise only (n = 8), or ...