Materials
6 participants (3 male, 3 female) ranging from ages 20-22 were studied
An EMG connected to an iWork IXTA box and disposable electrodes was used to analyze muscle activity
A Hand Dynamometer was used to measure muscle grip strength in order to calculate muscle fatigue time
Methods
Subjects were asked to clean their supinated forearm with alcohol swabs for electrode placement
Once cleaned, the subjects placed electrodes on specific parts of their supinated forearm – ground electrode (green) on the wrist, negative input (black) on the middle of the forearm, and positive input (red) distal to the elbow.
Each subject then sat in a chair facing away from the computer and squeeze the bulb of the hand dynamometer as tightly and as long as possible in an attempt to fatigue the muscles of the forearm - this initial individual fatigue time was recorded.
Following that, subjects were seated in front of their opponents computer and asked to complete the same task while trying to outlast their opponent - these fatigue times were also recorded
Analysis Methods
When recording participant's fatigue times, observers were watching to see when the subjects hit half of their maximum fatigue time. This was the data used for comparisons.
- Fatigue time is measured by using the T2-T1 function on Labscribe to measure the time from the beginning of the subjects grip to where their strength output reduced to one half of the max output.
These results were compared using a paired T-test in Excel to see if the subject’s fatigue time in competition was longer than the fatigue time they initially recorded by themselves.