Joint and muscle-tendon coordination strategies during submaximal jumping (article)

Previous research has demonstrated that during submaximal jumping, humans prioritize reducing energy consumption by minimizing countermovement depth. However, sometimes movement is constrained to a non-preferred pattern and this requires adaptation of neural control that accounts for complex interactions between muscle architecture, muscle properties, and task demands. This study compared submaximal jumping with either a preferred or deep countermovement depth to examine how joint and muscle mechanics are integrated into the adaptation of coordination strategies in the deep condition. Three-dimensional motion capture, two force plates, electromyography and ultrasonography were used to examine changes in joint kinetics and kinematics, muscle activation and muscle kinematics for the lateral gastrocnemius and soleus. Results demonstrated that a decrease in ankle joint work during the deep countermovement depth was due to increased knee flexion, leading to unfavorably short bi-articular muscle lengths and reduced active fascicle length change during ankle plantar flexion. Therefore, ankle joint work was likely decreased due to reduced active fascicle length change and operating position on the force-length relationship. Hip joint work was significantly increased as a result of altered muscle activation strategies, likely due to a substantially greater hip extensor muscle activation period compared to plantar flexor muscles during jumping. Therefore, coordination strategies at individual joints are likely influenced by time availability, where a short plantar flexor activation time results in dependence on muscle properties, instead of simply altering muscle activation, while the longer time for contraction of muscles at the hip allows for adjustments to voluntary neural control.