Estimating the EMG Response Exclusively to Fatigue During Sustained Static Maximum Voluntary Contraction

The increase of surface electromyography (sEMG) root-mean-square (RMS) is very frequently used to determine fatigue. However, as RMS is also influenced by muscle force, its effective usage as indicator of fatigue is mainly limited to isometric, constant force tasks. This research develops a simple method to preclude the effect of muscle force, hereby estimates the EMG amplitude response exclusively to fatigue with RMS. Experiment was carried out on the biceps brachiis of 15 subjects (7males, 8 females) during sustained static maximum voluntary contractions (sMVC). Result shows that the sEMG RMS response to fatigue increases to 21.27 % while muscle force decreasing to 50 % MVC, which implies that more and more extra effort is needed as muscle fatigue intensifies. It would be promising to use the RMS response exclusively to fatigue as an indicator of muscle fatigue.