European Journal of

Applied
Physiology

Eur J Appl Physiol (1982) 48:253-261

and Occupational Physiology

9 Springer-Verlag 1982

Electromechanical Behaviour
of Human Muscles in Vertical Jumps
J. T. Viitasalo and C. Bosco
Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyvfiskyl~i,
SF-40100 Jyvfiskyl~i 10, Finland

Summary. The relationships of muscle structure to the potentiation of

myoelectrical activity and to the use of prestretching in five lower limb
muscles were studied in different vertical jumping conditions. The subjects
for the study were six male students, divided according to the muscle fiber
distribution in m. vastus lateralis into "fast" and "slow" groups. The subjects
performed vertical jumps (1) from a static squatting position (SJ), (2) with a
preliminary counter movement (CMJ) and (3) after dropping (D J) from five
different heights. Myoelectrical (EMG) activity was recorded from ram. gluteus maximus, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, rectus femoris and gastrocnemius in each jumping condition and integrated (IEMG) for the eccentric
and concentric phases of contact. EMG activity showed potentiation during
the eccentric phase of movement when compared to the concentric phase.
The "fast" and "slow" groups did not differ significantly in this respect,
whereas in DJ conditions the relative (% from SJ) height of rise of the center
of gravity was greater in the "slow" than in the "fast" group. The result
indicated that the utilization of elastic energy during jumping was possible
better in subjects having a high percentage of slow twitch muscle fibres in
their vastus lateralis muscles.
Key words: Muscle mechanics - Slow and fast twitch fibres - Electromyography

Introduction
The storage of elastic energy during the stretching of skeletal muscle and the
utilization of this energy during the following concentric phase of contraction has
been observed both in animal (e.g., Cavagna et al. 1965, 1968) and in human
experiments (e.g., Cavagna et al. 1968, 1971; Thys 1972; Asmussen and
Off'print requests to: Dr. Jukka T. Viitasalo (address see above)

0301-5548/82/0048/0253/$ 01.80

254

J.T. Viitasalo and C. Bosco

B o n d e - P e t e r s e n 1974; K o m i and B o s c o 1978). T h e potentiation of myoelectrical

( E M G ) activity has also b e e n f o u n d during the eccentric phase of contraction,
w h e n c o m p a r e d to a maximal isometric (Schmidtbleicher et al. 1978) or a p u r e
concentric contraction (Bosco et al. 1981a; Viitasalo and B o s c o 1981; B o s c o and
Viitasalo 1981). T h e s e two p h e n o m e n a could be i n t e r c o n n e c t e d so that high
E M G activity at the end of the eccentric contraction e n h a n c e s the stiffness of the
muscle (Matthews 1959; H o u k et al. 1970; Nichols and H o u k 1973; J o y c e et al.
1974) and high stiffness favours the storage and utilization of elastic e n e r g y
(Bosco et al. 1981a, b). T h e s e p h e n o m e n a can also be considered as d e p e n d i n g
on muscle structure: the density of synaptic connections b e t w e e n m o t o n e u r o n s
and spindle afferents and the amplitude of m o n o s y n a p t i c E P S P s have b e e n
s h o w n in animals to be higher in tonic than in phasic m o t o n e u r o n s ( B u r k e 1968;
B u r k e and E d g e r t o n 1975) and the a m o u n t of E M G potentiation during the
stretching of a muscle should therefore d e p e n d on its p e r c e n t a g e of slow twitch
muscle fibers.
T h e present study was designed to investigate the relationships of muscle
structure to the potentiation of myoelectrical activity and to the use of
prestretching of five lower limb muscles in different vertical j u m p i n g
conditions.

Methods
Six male students, aged from 20-27 years, performed a vertical jumping test battery (Asmussen and
Bonde-Petersen 1974; Komi and Bosco 1978) consisting of vertical jumps (1) from a static squatting
position (SJ), (2) with a preliminary counter movement (CMJ) and (3) after dropping (D J) from
heights of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 cm. Three series of jumps, consisting of three SJs, three CMJs and
two DJs from each dropping height, 48 jumps in total, were performed on a force-platform.
The movement amplitude of the knee joint during each jump was measured with an
electrogoniometer attached to the lateral side of the subject's left knee joint. Electromyographic
(EMG) activity was recorded by bipolar surface electrodes (Beckman) from mm. gluteus maximus,
vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, rectus femoris and gastrocnemius with a 20 mm interelectrode
distance, amplified with Brookdeal 9432 preamplifiers (60 dB, 10 Hz to 1 kHz), and stored
simultaneously with the vertical force and angle signals on magnetic tape (Racal Store 7) for detailed
analysis by a HP 21-MX computer. The flight time measured from the force signal was used for
calculating the height of the rise of the centre of gravity h. (C.G.) in each jump (Asmussen and
Bonde-Petersen 1974). The vertical force signals were also used for calculations of the average
eccentric and concentric contact times. Figure 1 shows EMG activity (m. vastus lateralis), angular
displacement and vertical force signals in a SJ, CMJ and DJ (40 cm) condition. The EMG activities of
each muscle were integrated (IEMG, for 1 s) for the positive and negative phases of contact. For
further analysis these IEMG values from the five muscles and from all the jumps performed in the
same jumping condition were averaged. The respective averages for the height of the rise of the
centre of gravity and for the angular displacement and contact times were also calculated.
Duplicate needle biopsies (Bergstr6m 1962) were taken from the right m. vastus lateralis of the
subjects and stained with the myosin ATPase method (Padykula and Herman 1955) in order to
determine the pecentage distribution of the fast (FT) and slwo twitch (ST) muscle fibers. The six
subjects had the following ST percentages: 28, 25, 30, 66, 71, and 72.
Conventional statistical methods used included mean (Y~),standard deviation (SD), the standard
error of the mean (SE), dependent and independent Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and the
linear correlation coefficient.

Electromechanical Behaviour of Human Muscles

SQUATTING JUMP

lmV

255

COUNTER MOVEMENT JUMP

DROP JUMP

I
@

vertical

@0

farce

1000 N

_ --,--

------

~ontac~t" fLi~lht
tJml

['~176

o.,, V

time

Fig. 1. EMG-activity of m. vastus lateralis, knee angle and vertical force signals in a squatting,
countermovement and drop (from 40 cm) jump. The hatched area in the EMG signal, determined
from the angular displacement and force, describes the eccentric (| phase of contact. The
concentric (| phases are also separated by dotted lines, The curves are redrawn from the original
data

Results

IEMG activity of the five muscles calculated separately for the eccentric and
concentric phase of contact were averaged for each jumping condition (Fig. 2).
On average, the six subjects showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher IEMG
activity in the eccentric phases of DJ 20 and DJ 40 than in the SJ condition, and
in each DJ condition eccentric IEMG activity exceeded significantly (p < 0.05)
the respective concentric activity. The height of the rise of the centre of gravity
was higher (n.s.) in CMJ and DJ conditions as compared to the SJ condition, but
due to great interindividual variations the differences were not statistically
significant.
The subjects were grouped according to the muscle fiber distribution into a
"fast" group (ST % < 50, n = 3) and a "slow" group (ST % > 50, n = 3). When
the groups were compared in terms of eccentric and concentric IEMG activities,

256

J.T. Viitasalo and C. Bosco

' IEI'4G
(o/,)

120
100

60

SJ

H
CHJ

I
~J

20

4O

20

40

I,I
DJ

60

80

60

80

h(C.S)
(%)

~40

120
100
80

[-~--

-1SJ

CI'4J

DJ

Fig. 2. Average (+_ SE) IEMG activity (the upperpart offigure) of the five lower limb muscles for the
six subjects for the eccentric (hatched) and concentric phases of contact in each jumping condition
expressed as per cent of IEMG in SJ condition. The lower part of figure shows respective values for
the height of the rise of the centre of gravity also calculated as per cent of SJ. The stars denote the
statistical significance between SJ and the other jumping conditions. (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01)

contact times, and angular displacement in the different jumping conditions

(Figs. 3 and 4), no statistically significant differences were found. However, in
terms of the height of the rise of the centre of gravity the "slow" group jumped
relatively (% from SJ) higher (p < 0.05) in DJ conditions than the "fast" group.
Among the slow subjects, the relative jumping height (% from SJ) in the five DJ
conditions correlated significantly (r = 0.85-0.95, n = 5) with the relative
eccentric IEMG activity in the respective DJs, while among the fast subjects
such a significant relationship was not found (r = 0.18-0.53, n = 5). Figure 5
shows the IEMG activity and h(C.G.) for a fast (ST% = 30) and for a slow (ST%
= 72) subject for the five DJs expressed as a percentage in the SJ
condition.

Electromechanical Behaviour of Human Muscles

257

SLOW SUBJECTS

FAST SUBJECTS
h(%)(C.G)

160

160

140

140

120

120

100

100

8O

h(C.G)
(%)

,o

20
SJ

tco c

40

CHJ

60
DJ

80

20
SJ

CNJ

60

8O

DJ

~' CONC
/ IEMG

[ (%)
120[

12ot (%)
~oo
f

ill
20

40

SJ CMJ

60

I~1 ]

N !1
2O

80
SJ

DJ

40

CNJ

60

8O

DJ

IECC
IEMG
(%)

ECC
IEMG

(%}

120

120

100

~oo

8O
T
20
SJ

40

CMJ

~0

60
DJ

2O

80
SJ

CMJ

40

60
DJ

N
8O

Fig. 3. Average (+ SE) height of the rise of the centre of gravity (upper), and concentric (middle)
and eccentric (lower) IEMG activityfor the fast and slow subject groups. The values in CMJ and DJ
conditions are expressed as per cent of values in SJ condition

Discussion
In line with earlier reports (e.g. Schmidtbleicher et al. 1978; Bosco et al. 1981a),
E M G activity also showed potentiation in this study during the fast eccentric
phase of m o v e m e n t . The increase was clear when the average of I E M G activity
from the five muscles was used. However, as shown in the present writers'
previous papers (Viitasalo and Bosco 1981; Bosco and Viitasalo 1981) E G M had
intermuscular and interindividual variations, which can be considered as being

J. T. Viitasalo and C. Bosco

258

FAST SUBJECTS

SLOW SUBJECTS

ANGULAR
DISPLACEMENT
80~

ANGULAR
DISPLACEMENT
80~

II

6o0

60 ~

tt

/,0 ~

T. ,

CONTACT
TIME
Cms)
28O

DJ

'6' 0

0 LO

SJ CMJ

80

DJ

CONTACT
TIME
(ms)
280

\
\
\

2z,0

''2'

' 2'0 4'0 150 130

SJ CMJ

2/-0
\
\

20O

t|

200

160

t'_IIII
Ix/

"~T

120
,,\\

8O
T

\
\

160

120

//

80

20 ~0 60 80
SJ CMJ
DJ

'

' 2'o

SJ CMJ

,'0 ~o

,o

DJ

Fig. 4, Average (+ SE) angulardisplacement (upper), and eccentric (| and concentric (@) contact
times (lower) for the fast and slow subject groups. The values in CMJ and DJ conditions are
expressed as percent of values in SJ condition

due to inter- and intraindividual variations in the anatomical positions of the

legs, e.g. in the degree of rotation and flexion in the leg joints prior to and during
the contact, or due to variations in EMG activities prior to the contact in DJ
conditions. Therefore the further analyses in the present study were performed
using the average activity of the five lower limb extensor muscles.
Contrary to what was expected theoretically, the subjects with a high ST
percentage did not show a significantly higher potentiation of myoelectrical
activity than the subjects with low ST%, the range of angular displacement and
contact times being similar in the "fast" and "slow" groups for each jumping

Electromeehanical Behaviour of Human Muscles

259

SUBJECT V.R.

SUBJECT R.K

%
140

140

h (C.G)
120

100

100

80

60

60
20
SJ

40

60
DJ

80

100

20
SJ

40

60
DJ

80

100

Fig. 5. Relative (% of SJ) IEMG activity and the height of the rise of the centre of gravity for a fast
(V.R.) and a slow (R.K.) subject in the six different jumping conditions

conditions. The groups were comparable in respect of IEMG activities and the
height of the rise of the centre of gravity. The similarity in IEMG between the
groups in the eccentric and concentric phases of contact suggests that both the
fast and slow subjects had an equal opportunity of utilizing the enhanced
stiffness and, following this, the elastic energy in the concentric phase of contact.
However, when the average relative (% from SJ) heights of the rise of the centre
of gravity in DJ conditions were compared, the slow subjects were found to jump
significantly higher.
The jumping height in the squatting condition is connected to explosive force
production in a pure concentric contraction. In line with the results at an
individual motor unit level (e.g., Steg 1964; Gydikov et al. 1976) the rate of force
production in both isometric (Viitasalo and Komi 1978) and dynamic
(Thorstensson et al. 1976) contractions has been shown to correlate to muscle
structure so that subjects with primarily fast twitch muscle cells were able to
produce more force in a given time than subjects with a high ST percentage.
Accordingly, in CMJ and SJ conditions, subjects with a high FT percentage have
been shown to jump higher than "slow" subjects (Bosco and Komi 1979).
However, as discussed in connection with the rate of isometric force production
(Viitasalo 1980), the explosive force is also sensitive to training, which may
partly influence the relationships reported between muscle structure and
performances demanding explosive power.
In the present study the "fast" subject group jumped significantly higher
(29.0 _+ 2.8 cm vs. 21.3 + 1.4 cm, p < 0.01) in the SJ condition than the "slow"
group, whereas in CMJ and DJ conditions no significant differences were found.
With respect to the SJ condition, the finding supports the results of Bosco and
Komi (1979), suggesting that "fast" subjects were able to recruit the motor units
more explosively than "slow" subjects. Because the comparisons of h(C.G.)
between the groups in the present study were performed using relative values (%
of SJ), the difference in the SJ condition explains the differences found in the DJ

260

J.T. Viitasalo and C. Bosco

conditions in h(C.G.). However, it does not explain why the "slow" group
jumped relatively (% of SJ) higher in DJ conditions, without showing any higher
increase of IEMG, than the "fast" group.
The storage of elastic energy and its reuse in a concentric contraction is
connected to time so that if the time delay between the stretch and concentric
contraction (coupling time, Bosco et al. 1981b) is too long the energy stored
dissipates as heat (Fenn and Marsh 1935; Cavagna et al. 1968). Part of the elastic
energy is stored in crossbridges between the actin and myosin filaments (Huxley
1974). In this connection possible differences between the ST and FT fibres in
the life time of a cross-bridge and in stiffness (see Gregory et al. 1978; Stein and
Parmiggiani 1979), could be of importance, with the result that the subjects in
the present study with primarily ST fibers were able to better utilize the stored
elastic energy in the DJ performances, where the eccentric contact times were
from 88-115 ms.
However, due to the limited number of subjects, the findings and the
explanation model do not allow any generalizations and need more investigation.

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Accepted September 14, 1981