Prediction of muscle recruitment and its effect on joint reaction forces during knee exercises

This study examined the hypothesis that muscle recruitment of the tibiofemoral joint and joint reaction forces during isometric and isokinetic exercises depends on the existing degrees of freedom of the knee and the direction and type of external load applied during exercise. When three-dimensional knee joint rotation was considered (three degrees of freedom), antagonistic muscle activities were predicted using an inverse dynamic problem formulation and muscle modeling optimization procedures. The results showed that the antagonistic activities of flexors during knee flexion/extension exercise increased the joint compressive forces and decreased the anterior tibial shear forces. Comparison of different knee joint modeling assumptions indicated that modeling a single degree of freedom in flexion/extension for the knee will underestimate the antagonistic muscle function.