Understanding sEMG

Tennis racket grip with EMG:

• Measure muscle tension when athlete is holding a tennis raquet and when their coach is holding tennis racket to change the grip

Want to use EMG to measure when they are doing a sports move right. If they are doing the sports move right, then we want to note down those EMG scores and when they are doing imagery they should be aiming for thos same scores. 

Elements of Biofeedback Therapy

• Scanning of the musculature

• Working with trigger points

• Identification and reduction of compensatory postures

• Differentiation between muscle tension and muscle shortening

• Static EMG measurements

• Dynamic EMG measurements

Biofeedback as...

• General relaxation training and stress management strategy

• A targeted technique to influence poor posture, muscular imbalances, and increased muscle tension in specific muscle groups

• Primary goal: Emphasizing self-initiative and self-regulation capabilities, and reducing helplessness, fear of movement, and avoidance or protective beh

• Slow twitch fibers
  – Responsible for maintaining tonic baseline and postural tension
  – Frequency range below 80 Hz

• Fast twitch fibers
  – Primarily serve phasic, strong, and fast movements
  – Frequency range 100–200 Hz

Psychophysiology

• Psychological stress is often accompanied by muscular tension as well as head, neck, shoulder, and lower back pain.

• Classical conditioning of tension and pain:
  – Pain leads to reflexive muscle tension and increased sympathetic activation. Due to the increased muscle tension and activation, the pain is further intensified or even trigg

Indications in the Motor System

• Tension headaches

• Cervical syndrome

• Temporomandibular dysfunction
  (dysregulation of muscle and jaw functions)

• Bruxism (teeth grinding)

• Back pain

• Urinary and fecal incontinence

• Postural disorders of the musculoskeletal system

• Muscle tics

• Writer’s cramp

• Spastic paralysis

• Neuromuscular rehabilitation in cases of paresis and spinal

Electrical Muscle Activity (EMG)

• Striated muscles are innervated by the somatic nervous system.

• This reaction system is therefore also voluntarily controlled.

• In addition, involuntary reactions occur, e.g., in connection with emotional experiences and psychological stress.

• The recording of electrical muscle activity is called electromyography.

• The recor