Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Electric stimulation; Muscle strength;

Abstract

It was the purpose of this study to test the effects of electrical muscle stimulation in developing strength. An additional purpose was to determine if specificity of training occurs with electrical muscle stimulation, in that a slow electrical pulse rate would be more effective in developing strength at slow limb speeds while faster electrical pulse rates would be more effective for strength at a faster limb speed. Thirty subjects were assigned to one of three treatment groups, (control, 5 electrical pulses/s stimulation group, and an 80 electrical pulses/s stimulation group) depending upon their tolerance to the electrical stimulation. Treatment groups received electrical stimulation three times per week for five weeks. The control group received no muscle stimulation or any other training program. All subjects were pretested and post-tested for maximum strength on a Cybex II. The findings of this study, as determined by a 3 x 2 (treatment x testing time) ANOVA were as follows: (a) there was no significant strength difference between pretest and posttest scores for the treatment groups at 30°/s or 180°/s and (b) there was no interaction between treatment groups and stimulation rate at either testing speed. It was concluded that a training program of electrical muscle stimulation was not effective in increasing the dynamic strength of the quadriceps muscles regardless of training pulse rate, during 15 training sessions. Also, there was no differential effect of pulse rates at 5 or 80 pulses/s towards increasing healthy quadriceps muscle strength.

Year of Submission

1989

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation

First Advisor

Susann Gael Doody

Second Advisor

Sharon Huddleston

Third Advisor

Larry D. Hensley

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to [email protected] and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1988

Object Description

1 PDF file (49 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Share

COinS