Week 12, Day 1:

Calculators, models, and muscles

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Outline for today
• Exam 2 review

• Term paper instructions

• Exposure to computer-based modeling and questions

• Inverse kinematics
• Inverse dynamics
• Muscle contribution to joint torque
• Muscle indeterminacy problem
• Muscle contraction physiology

• Homework is due this Thursday

Question 1: Balance on one leg
• Basic FBD
• Trendelenburg gait
• How many of you looked this up vs trusting your
math/anatomy
• Did compensation make sense?
• Did you try to find a video?
• When do people balance on one leg?
• Age related changes:
• Decreased gluteal muscle strength
• Johnson, Marjorie E., et al. "Age-related changes in hip abductor and adductor joint
torques." Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation 85.4 (2004): 593-597.

• Shift from fast to slow twitch

• Fall risk, lifestyle recommendations
Question 2: Slip on ice
• Basic FBD

• Did the lateral slip raise any eyebrows?

• Why would a foot displace laterally in normal gait?
• Is there usually a lateral component of force?
• What would that then mean for the surface Cade was walking on?
Question 3: Inverse dynamics
• I’ll post the worked-out answers.
• Unlikely that we will have another example like this on the third
test.
• You have had enough practice with this, but we will revisit this
later on this lecture!
 Question 4: Broad jump distance
• Here again, different ways to calculate, but
all boil down to same principles
• Impulse → mv
• Curran jumped about 1.3m
• Wei jumped about 0.9m
• Undoubtedly values will vary between methods, so
answers were considered correct if within +/- 0.25m
of correct value (getting the right answers for the
distances was not a massive amount of points in any
case)
• Real life is measured differently
• Cleap1 vs Cleap3 (3rd jump had lower angle, greater
AP velocity)
• I most certainly jumped farther
• Optimal angles of standing broad jump are less
than 45°.
• Wakai, Masaki, and Nicholas P. Linthorne. "Optimum take-off angle in
the standing long jump." Human movement science 24.1 (2005): 81-96.
Question 5: Stoop vs Squat
• The compromise should have been intuitive.
• Any questions on the math?
• Did this question make sense and follow what you expected?

• Any other thoughts on the test overall?

Term paper assignment: Experiment Proposal
• Requirements:
• 3 page maximum (single spaced)
• Excludes figures, title page, and references (first two are entirely optional)
• Minimum of 5 citations
• At least 2 citations must be used to evidence why your experiment may be
interesting or important. Why is it worth studying?
• At least 3 citations must be used to evidence how you formulated your
hypotheses or methods. These should be summarized in relatively more
detail.
• Must clearly reference topics discussed in class from 5 lectures
• Please make these obvious by using in-text citations indicating which lecture
pertains to the given sentence or statement.
• So, what are you writing?
Term paper assignment: Experiment Proposal
• Goal: Propose an experiment/study about a human movement of
your choice that will be analyzed using human motion
biomechanics principles
• Components of the “proposal”: (Rationale, approach, impact)
• Context/background/significance
• Objectives, aims, hypotheses
• Protocol (including independent variables)
• Data analysis methods (include dependent variables)
• Potential impact
Term paper assignment: Experiment Proposal
• What you must do:
• Find a movement you want to study
• Succinctly summarize recent
literature on the topic
• Cite sources to show importance and
context
• Cite sources to explain why you
devised the 2-3 hypotheses you did
• Describe a protocol
• If doing a comparison, is it between
different populations or are you
comparing a treatment vs a control?
What are the independent variables
here?
• Describe the equipment you would
need to test the hypotheses
• Describe the dependent variables. Are
these values from the raw data? If not,
what math/mechanics analysis steps
would one go through to get the
information needed?
• What statistical tests must be run to
test the proposed hypotheses?
Term paper assignment: Experiment Proposal
• You will be graded on:
• Originality and significance
• Quality and logic of your argument (including evidence for context and
hypotheses)
• Demonstration of knowledge gained from class
• Effective scientific communication
• Bottom line:
• Have you learned enough from this class to be able to efficiently navigate
literature, sift through material, acquire knowledge, innovate/create/synthesize
something new, and successfully present your thoughts in a professional
manner?

• Questions?
Computer-based calculations
• These calculations are painful and could be “computerized”.
• What information do we need?

• How can we get such information?

• Anthropometry?
• “Algorithms” based off multiple marker trajectories? How?
• What is a model? Examples?
• A simplified or “fictional” representation of real phenomena
• Sometimes for the purpose of reducing/eliminating unknown variables
• Motion Biomechanics examples? ATD, animal models, computer models
Human body modeling
• Goal is to go from motion capture or IMU to linear and angular
acceleration for the purpose of inverse dynamics calculations
• “Inverse kinematics”
• OpenSim and AnyBody are modeling platforms
• https://simtk-confluence.stanford.edu/display/OpenSim/User%27s+Guide
• OpenSim uses “inverse kinematics” to create a “best fit” posture/position for
every frame of motion capture data. This matches a scaled model to the real
participant.
From IK to ID
• I and m are known from scaling of the model
• as and 𝛼s are calculated from IK
• Using standard F = ma methods, JRFs and JRMs can be
calculated.
 Contribution of muscle
• Now, we have joint reaction moments.
• If given the moment arm of the muscle for a joint, we
could then calculate the tension in said muscle.
• Even without IK and ID, this method could be used
with simple mechanics problems. Stuart McGill studied
low back mechanics.
• 5cm was the accepted moment arm for the “single muscle
equivalent” of the spinal erectors
• McGill, Stuart M., and Robert W. Norman. "Effects of an anatomically
detailed erector spinae model on L4L5 disc compression and shear." Journal
of biomechanics 20.6 (1987): 591-600.
• Could calculate shear and compressive forces when able to calculate tension

• Is this single muscle equivalent accurate?

Muscle indeterminacy problem
• Often, more than 1 muscle crosses a joint and contributes to torque
• How much tension is in each muscle?
• Indeterminate
• Solution: optimization
• Of what?
• Multiple options exist.
• If I go to the gym and do a bicep curl, how much tension is in my
• Biceps brachii
• Brachialis
• Brachioradialis
• Need to first understand how muscles produce tension to answer
this question. Next class!
Questions?
• Anything you would like to go over again?