Whole-body patterns of the range of joint motion in young adults: masculine type and feminine type

Abstract

BackgroundUnderstanding the whole-body patterns of joint flexibility and their related biological and physical factors contributes not only to clinical assessments but also to the fields of human factors and ergonomics. In this study, ranges of motion (ROMs) at limb and trunk joints of young adults were analysed to understand covariation patterns of different joint motions and to identify factors associated with the variation in ROM.MethodsSeventy-eight healthy volunteers (42 males and 36 females) living on Okinawa Island, Japan, were recruited. Passive ROM was measured at multiple joints through the whole body (31 measurements) including the left and right side limbs and trunk.ResultsComparisons between males and females, dominant and non-dominant sides, and antagonistic motions indicated that body structures influence ROMs. In principal component analysis (PCA) on the ROM data, the first principal component (PC1) represented the sex difference and a similar covariation pattern appeared in the analysis within each sex. Multiple regression analysis showed that this component was associated with sex, age, body fat %, iliospinale height, and leg extension strength.ConclusionsThe present study identified that there is a spectrum of “masculine” and “feminine” types in the whole-body patterns of joint flexibility. This study also suggested that body proportion and composition, muscle mass and strength, and possibly skeletal structures partly explain such patterns. These results would be important to understand individual variation in susceptibility to joint injuries and diseases and in one’s suitable and effective postures and motions.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40101-016-0112-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Human Lower Limb Joint Biomechanics in Daily Life Activities: A Literature Based Requirement Analysis for Anthropomorphic Robot Design

“…We found that the presented mean maximal human ankle dorsiflexion value from Roaas and Andersson (1982) was 15 • to 23 • less compared to the dorsiflexion during squat jump and squat lifting (Figure 1). Slightly smaller differences occur when compared to maximal values based on another study (Moromizato et al, 2016). We believe that a part of this difference could result from the definition of the neutral position (subject supine with knee in 45 • flexion) used in Roaas and Andersson (1982) and Moromizato et al (2016), compared to our approach that normalized the data to standing.…”

“…Slightly smaller differences occur when compared to maximal values based on another study (Moromizato et al, 2016). We believe that a part of this difference could result from the definition of the neutral position (subject supine with knee in 45 • flexion) used in Roaas and Andersson (1982) and Moromizato et al (2016), compared to our approach that normalized the data to standing. Further, increased dorsiflexion at the ankle could be possible with increased knee FIGURE 4 | Maximum power vs. maximum moment of the hip, knee, and ankle for all analyzed movements.…”

“…A more plausible reason for increased dorsiflexion during the squat jump and squat lifting could be that the Achilles tendon and the calf muscles are stretched by the external load at the beginning of both movements (see plantarflexion moments in the Appendix). Thus, we believe that the applied joint moments can cause an increased range of motion, compared to the passive range of motion measurements (Roaas and Andersson, 1982;Moromizato et al, 2016) without larger applied joint moments.…”

Design and Evaluation of a Multi-Mode Robotic Arm Orthosis using Musculoskeletal Simulation

“…Physical parameters of the orthosis links, which were obtained from Solidworks, are given in Table 1; where I i represents moment of inertia, m i is the mass, and l ci is the distance from the i-th joint to the i-th mass center position and l i is the length of the i-th link. Range of motions (ROM) of the orthosis joints has been restricted according to the values in the literature [16]. These ROM values are given in the Table 2.…”

Magnitude of physiological curvatures of the spine and the incidence of contractures of selected muscle groups in students

“…Muscle contractures cause motion in the joints, but whether such motions take place in their full range depends on many factors, including the conditions of the muscles [21]. Nonetheless, it should be mentioned that achieving excessive mobility in the joints (exceeding the physiological norms) may be undesirable and may lead to serious consequences.…”