A. Nagano et al., COMPARISON OF NEW APPROACHES TO ESTIMATE MECHANICAL OUTPUT OF INDIVIDUAL JOINTS IN VERTICAL JUMPS, Journal of biomechanics, 31(10), 1998, pp. 951-955
Conventional calculation of joint power is not effective in order to a
ssess translational motions of human body. Two new approaches were dev
eloped in this study to estimate translational mechanical outputs from
individual joints. They were applied to the analysis of vertical jump
motions of six male subjects. In both cases, body of subjects were mo
deled with a four mass-points system model, and joints were regarded a
s motion generators. In one approach, increase of vertical component o
f ground reaction force (GRF) was decomposed into push-off force of th
ree joints (ankle, knee, and hip joints). This procedure gave an estim
ation of impulse exerted per leg, as 83-92 Ns (95% confidential interv
al) for squat jump? which was similar to half of the impulse provided
to mass center of the body calculated from GRF, 82-88 N s. In the othe
r approach, amount of the power exerted by each joint vertically was e
stimated by calculating the scalar product of joint reaction force and
relative velocity vectors of adjacent segments. This approach gave es
timation of vertical work provision per leg, as 201-226 and 141-181 J
for squat and counter movement jumps, which were not so different from
half of the work provided to mass center of the body calculated from
GRF, 209-227 and 137-175 J, respectively. As these approaches make it
possible to calculate translational mechanical outputs specifically, t
hey are useful and consistent concerning the analysis of translational
motion of human body. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser
ved.