TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - Effect of arm position on spatial distribution of upper trapezius muscle activity during simulated car driving JO - International journal of occupational safety and ergonomics A1 - Watanabe, Kohei A1 - Yoshida, Takahiro SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - The present study aimed to investigate the upper trapezius muscle activity during simulated car driving while adopting three different arm positions. Ten participants were instructed to maintain the following positions: hands on the steering wheel (Hands-On), hands not on the steering wheel (Hands-Off), and hands not on the steering wheel but arms on armrests (Armrests). During the tasks, multi-channel surface electromyography (EMG) was recorded from the upper trapezius muscle with 64 two-dimensionally distributed electrodes. Amplitudes of surface EMG in Armrests were lower than in Hands-On (p = 0.004). The spatial distribution of surface EMG changed with time in Hands-Off and Armrests (p < 0.05), but not in Hands-On (p > 0.05). These findings suggest that being freed from steering leads to the recruitment of various muscle fibers/motor units within the upper trapezius muscle and the use of armrests may help reduce the physiological burden loaded on the muscle of drivers.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1080-3548 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2021.1929700 ID - ref1 ER -