Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 4, 2026

Comparative Analysis of Lower Limb Kinematics between the Initial and Terminal Phase of 5km Treadmill Running
Published on: July 17, 2020
Fatigue and soft tissue vibration during prolonged running
Arash Khassetarash1, Reza Hassannejad1, Mir Mohammad Ettefagh1
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
Abstract:
Muscle tuning paradigm proposes that the mechanical properties of soft tissues are tuned in such a way that its vibration amplitude become minimized. Therefore, the vibrations of soft tissue are heavily damped. However, it has been hypothesized that the ability of muscle tuning decreases with fatigue. This study investigated the changes in vibration characteristics of soft tissue with fatigue. Vibrations of the gastrocnemius muscle of 8 runners during a prolonged run protocol on a treadmill at constant velocity (4 ms(-1)) were measured using a tri-axial accelerometer. The vibration amplitude is calculated using the Fourier transform and a wavelet-based method was used to calculate the damping coefficient. The results showed that: (1) the vibration amplitude in longitudinal direction increased with fatigue, which may be interpreted as the decreased muscle function with fatigue. (2) The amplitude increase percent strongly depended on the vibration frequency. (3) The damping coefficient of the gastrocnemius increased with fatigue. A 1-DOF mass-spring-damper model was used in order to validate the wavelet based method and simulate the observed phenomena.
Related Concept Videos
Fatigue
Muscle Recovery and Fatigue
Fatigue Strength of Concrete
Peripheral Arterial Disease II: Clinical Manifestations and Diagnostic Evaluation
Exercise and Muscle Performance
Endurance exercises
Endurance exercises involve running, swimming, or cycling, which require repetitive movements with low force output. When a person engages in endurance exercise, a few noticeable changes occur in their skeletal muscles. For instance, the number of capillaries...
Muscle Stimulation Frequency
Wave summation
At low firing rates, motor neurons induce individual twitch contractions in muscle fibers. These twitches...

