Voluntary contractions underestimate peak muscle activity in drop jumps

Maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) are a common method to normalize electromyographic amplitude into standardized units of %MVIC. However, in 60% of drop jump research using an MVIC in 2018-2023, supramaximal activation or activation greater than 100% MVIC occurred. Therefore, MVICs may not be representative of peak muscle activation, leading to erroneous interpretation of muscle activation. The purpose of this study is to quantify EMG normalization difference in drop jump landings. Sixteen (10 M, 6F) participants were recruited for the study. MVICs were recorded from nine lower extremity muscles and this activation compared to the maximal activation recorded from 10 drop jump trials. The MVIC significantly underestimated maximum activation by 71%-140% in one-sample t-tests, for the rectus femoris (p = 0.002), vastus medialis (p < 0.001), medial gastrocnemius (p = 0.002), lateral gastrocnemius (p = 0.002), tibialis anterior (p = 0.02), and gluteus maximus (p = 0.03). The one-sample t-tests were not statistically significant for the remaining muscles with the data containing significant variability. Our data quantifies EMG normalization underestimate and supports the status in the literature where normalization with MVICs will underestimate maximal muscle activation in drop jump movements.