Ma. Hemingway et al., ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC RECORDINGS OF PARASPINAL MUSCLES - VARIATIONS RELATED TO SUBCUTANEOUS TISSUE THICKNESS, Biofeedback and self-regulation, 20(1), 1995, pp. 39-49
The aim of this study was to assess the effect on EMG amplitude measur
es of variations in the thickness of underlying tissue between surface
electrodes and the active muscle. 20 normal subjects with different a
mounts of subcutaneous tissue performed comparable constant force cont
ractions for a 45-second period, during which paraspinal EMG recording
s were taken. Three measures of subcutaneous tissue thickness were obt
ained from each subject: Body Mass Index, total body fat as calculated
by Durnin's formula, and skinfold thickness at the recording sites. T
he results show that (i) the greater the thickness of subcutaneous tis
sue between the surface recording site and the contracting muscles, th
e lower the recorded electromyographic activity, and that (ii) up to 8
1.2% of the variance in the EMG measures can be explained by variation
in the amount of subcutaneous tissue. These findings support the view
that the absolute level of surface-recorded EMG cannot simply be take
n at face value. The amplitude of the signal will be affected by, for
example, the amount of body fat.