A regression model predicting isometric shoulder muscle activities from arm postures and shoulder joint moments

Tissue overloading is a major contributor to shoulder musculoskeletal injuries. Previous studies attempted to use regression-based methods to predict muscle activities from shoulder kinematics and shoulder kinetics. While a regression-based method can address co-contraction of the antagonist muscles as opposed to the optimization method, most of these regression models were based on limited shoulder postures. The purpose of this study was to develop a set of regression equations to predict the 10th percentile, the median, and the 90th percentile of normalized electromyography (nEMG) activities from shoulder postures and net shoulder moments. Forty participants generated various 3-D shoulder moments at 96 static postures. The nEMG of 16 shoulder muscles was measured and the 3-D net shoulder moment was calculated using a static biomechanical model. A stepwise regression was used to derive the regression equations. The results indicated the measured range of the 3-D shoulder moment in this study was similar to those observed during work requiring light physical capacity. The r(2) of all the regression equations ranged between 0.228 and 0.818. For the median of the nEMG, the average r(2) among all 16 muscles was 0.645, and the five muscles with the greatest r(2) were the three deltoids, supraspinatus, and infraspinatus. The results can be used by practitioners to estimate the range of the shoulder muscle activities given a specific arm posture and net shoulder moment.