Joint moments and muscle activity in the lower extremities and lower back in lifting and lowering tasks

The mechanical loading on the body during the act of lifting has been estimated frequently. The opposite act of lowering has received much less attention. The aim of the present study was to compare the mechanical loading of the musculoskeletal system in lifting and lowering. Eight subjects repetitively lifted and lowered a load, using two different techniques (a leg and a back technique). The ankle, knee, hip and lumbosacral joint moments were estimated and the myoelectrical (EMG) activity of seven (leg and back) muscles was recorded. The differences between the lifting and lowering phase for the leg technique were similar to those observed when the back technique was applied. The joint moment curves in lifting showed a high level of agreement with the (time-reversed) moment curves in lowering. Peak moments in lowering were only slightly lower than in lifting (peak lumbar moments were 5.4% lower). These small differences were related to different acceleration profiles at the centre of gravity of the body/load complex. The EMG activity was considerably lower in lowering than in lifting. The mean EMG in lowering (average for seven muscles) was only about 69% of the EMG in lifting. This was attributed to the different types of muscle actions involved in lifting (mainly concentric) and lowering (mainly eccentric). Furthermore, the EMG results suggest that similar inter-muscular coordination is involved in lowering and lifting. The results give rise to the assumption that in lifting and lowering similar muscle forces are produced to meet the (nearly) equal joint moments, but in lowering these forces are distributed over a smaller cross-sectional area of active muscle, which might imply a higher risk of injury.