Maximum Right Hand Grip Strength: College Athletes vs. Non-Athletes
Introduction
Hand grip is vital in daily life and sport events. The action of grip is formed when all finger joints, the thumbs and the wrist flex. The grip strength is created by flexor muscles in the hand and the forearm, while the wrist is stabilized by the extensor muscles in the forearm (Ward,¬ 2016). Since hand grip is involved in actions of catching, throwing, shooting and holding objects, it plays a significant role in many popular sports, such as tennis, baseball and basketball. A study conducted in India compared the left and right hand grip strength between junior basketball players and volleyball players. The result showed that basketball players, who were taller and had longer and wider hands, had higher grip strength. The study concluded that the hand length and span contribute to the difference in grip strength (Gaurav 2015).
Besides hand length, some other factors could also affect the strength of hand grip. Thus this experiment is done to investigate if athletes’ strong upper limb muscles also contribute to their high grip strength. The difference in the maximum right hand grip strength between college athletes and non-athletes were compared. The null hypothesis is that the maximum right hand grip strength is the same for college athletes and non-athletes. The alternative hypothesis is that the maximum right hand grip strength is different between college athletes and non-athletes.
This experiment was conducted to see if icing certain muscles in the arm affects grip strength. An electromyogram and dynamometer was used to test this theory. An electromyogram (EMG) is used to record muscles contraction, and a dynamometer is used to test grip strength. The superficial muscles in the forearm that contract when something is being gripped are flexor carpi radialis, brachioradialis, flexor carpi ulnaris, and flexor digitorum superficialis muscles. When muscles are fatigued, often times after sports practice or a game, ice is usually the go to. Some athletes take ice baths to relax their body so the muscles don't get sore. This experiment will prove if ice relaxes the muscles in the forearm and makes the grip weaker as the muscles are cold.
Oxygen debt in the muscles is reached when oxygen levels are much lower than required during strenuous physical activity, causing lactate fermentation to occur in the cells leading to muscle fatigue. The results found in the experiment were the number of squeezes in the first trial for the dominant and non-dominant hands were significantly higher than the remaining ones. The results also showed as the trials continued, the number of muscle contractions decreased steadily which supported the hypothesis. However, there were some increased numbers for the dominant hand from trial 4 to 5 and trial 9 to 10. The non-dominant hand expressed similar unexpected results from trial 6 to 7 and trial 9 and 10. The reasons for these results might be due to the finger muscles being worked at the high intensity for a long period of time causing the muscles to consume higher amounts of oxygen thus producing more ATP production. This would cause the muscles to create more contractions towards the end of the trials. The unexpected results could also be caused by experimental errors such as faulty clothespins. The springs connecting the two ends of the clothespin was tight causing the number of contractions as the trials progressed having a more significant decrease. This is because the amount of energy required to open and close the clothespin would be higher, causing the lactate threshold to occur quicker. Due to this, the number of squeezes would decrease drastically as the trials progressed, in contrast to if the springs were normal. This would change the results by the difference between the trials not being evident therefore, not demonstrating the effects of muscle fatigue. Another factor that altered this experiment was the participant’s condition, Palmar Hyperhidrosis –excessive sweating on the palms – which
When one administered the dynamometer to measure gross motor strength while another one administered the lateral pinch meter for fine motor strength, there was a significant different in the amount of strength between Angelo’s right upper extremity and left upper extremity. After three trials on both arms through both of these assessment tools occurred, the results indicated that his left upper extremity was significantly weaker than his right upper extremity, all because of his cerebrovascular
Tennis serve is the shot that starts off the point. It is normally instigated by pitching the ball into the air and thumping it into the diagonally opposite service box exclusive of touching the net. This act is attained underhand or overhead. It is the only attempt where a player takes his time to position up, instead of reacting to an opponent’s shot. In doing this, high percentages of the efforts are normally exerted at the upper extremity of the body, while the rest at the lower extremity of the body. the serves comes in five main types of which includes; cannonball or flat serve, topspin-slice serve, slice serve, American twist serve and the topspin serve. The paper will focus on the some of the types of the serves and the ways in which the upper extremity are involved in the game. With this, it will look at the movements that occur at each of the upper extremity together with the muscles that are in use at the joints.
In NCAA Men’s Gymnastics, grips are the one piece of equipment that every gymnast needs in order to be successful in the sport. The only two genres of men’s gymnastics grips are ring grips and high bar grips. Although they both have a similar function, they vary in certain aspects of their design in order to allow the athlete to have his best possible performance on the different events.
A pitcher with a great amount of throwing power and technique can decrease the amounts of hits, and essentially limit the amounts of runs scored by the opposing team. Training for this type of athlete will include an incorporation of muscular endurance, muscular strength, muscular power, muscular power endurance, and flexibility, agility, and speed for maximal performance. Increasing each factor can help reduce the risk of injury by strengthening the muscles around the joints that are easily injured due to the amount of power and torque exerted on the tendons by each pitch (Wilk, Macrina, Fleisig, Aune, Porterfield, Harker, Evans, 2014). Several studies show the importance of strength and conditioning on injury prevention, however, pitchers with more balanced rotator cuff musculature may be at lower risk for injury and have a greater range of motion (ROM). Given the high demands placed on the shoulder in all defensive positions, professional baseball pitchers may be at higher risk of injury without proper conditioning due to constant usage. This can lead to the tightening of tendons and reduced ROM causing greater risk of injury. Although arm strength and power are important to increase a pitchers velocity, lower extremity strength and conditioning are also thought to be crucial in the transfer of energy during pitching and thus should be included for a pitchers success (Wilk,
Description of subjects and methods: This particular study pertaining to the effect of pre-exercise creatine ingestion on muscle performance in healthy aging males was a double blind, cross-over design with repeated measures in which participants of the study ingested creatine, and a placebo, depending on their randomized assignment to a group separated by seven days, and three hours prior to performing chest press and leg press repetitions until muscle fatigue occurred. After ingesting either the creatine or placebo, the participants were instructed to refrain from caffeine, alcohol, food, drinks, and physical activity but water was permitted to the participant's amount of choosing. Seven days were spread between testing to guarantee that adequate muscle recovery between sessions was
They defined one independent variable as group, referring to either healthy control or GH injury. The other independent variable was defined as functional exercise, which consisted of bow and arrow (BA), external rotation with scapular squeeze (ERSS), lawnmower, and robbery. The dependent variables were identified as normalized muscle-activation from the serratus anterior (SA), upper trapezius (UT), middle trapezius (MT), and lower trapezius (LT). These values were used to calculate ratios of muscle-activation (Moeller, Huxel Bliven, & Snyder Valier,
Power is the rate at which work is performed. It has a speed component to it, unlike strength. The explosive aspect of strength is referred to as maximal muscular power and is the functional application of both strength and speed of movement (Kenney, Wilmore, & Costill, 2015). The Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnt) has been proven to be a tool that is reliable for assessing muscular power, endurance and fatigue. A study was completed in order to determine the relationship between upper body strength and power and on the upper body anaerobicperformance. A bench press and bench press throw was used to determine upper body anaerobic performance and was measured during an arm ergometry WAnt (Lovell, Mason, Eagles, Shewring &Mclellan,2011).
1A. 1B. 2. There was a positive linear correlation between arm dimension and maximal strength in terms of both area and volume. The reason for this positive correlation is that large arm dimension is representative of larger muscle cross-sectional area which means that the muscle can produce a larger maximal force. In general males were above females in terms of absolute strength. Only one male had a maximum grip strength less than that of a female.
The main aim was to see if scapula-stabilising exercises could influence the velocity and accuracy of the tennis serve. This experiment focused on recreational tennis players due to limited research in this area of tennis.
In a similar study, the Central Nervous System (CNS) is required to generate motor commands by taking net torque, muscle torque, interaction torque, gravitational torque into consideration to execute multi joint movement (Hirashima 2003). Throwers’ were examined by instructing them to throw balls of different weights and diameter and it was predicted that back forces would adjust the finger grip force in accordance to the amplitude and finger extension (Harashima, 2003). As a result, the CNS of the skilled ball-throwers could predict for back forces caused by the hand acceleration (Hirashima, 2003).
The authors conducted this study to see how and when this ability in humans evolved by studying the mechanics used in throwing. They compared the mechanics of throwing of humans to that of chimpanzees. The authors said that previous studies found that the internal rotator muscles are responsible fort the power of the human throw. The investigators hypothesize that the elastic energy storage is the important source for this power. They also stated that other features of the human shoulder are important in storing this energy and
Volleyball, basketball, high jump, hurdling, long jump, and pole vaulting all have a certain motor skill in common and that motor skill is jumping. Jumping is a gross motor skill which coordinates movements which requires the use of the large muscles in the arms, legs, torso, and feet. Furthermore, jumping requires strength, balance, coordination, body awareness, and motor planning. Our lower extremity contains multiple muscles in order for a person to jump. Many of the muscles in the lower extremity cross more than one joint. The basic muscles that are used during jumping are the rectus femoris, gastrocnemius, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and the long head of biceps femoris. The semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and the long head of the biceps femoris are muscles that make up the hamstrings. Our task was to observe and report a certain motor skill and behavior in different stages of learning. Our group observed Toddlers/Preschool, Grade School, Jr. High, High School, and College students jumping in a non-structure play (like recess), structure (like PE class or sport practice), and a competitive environment.
When the human body moves during regular movement or during athletic performance, the movements can be scientifically broken down and analyzed by biomechanics based on a number of different analytics. Some of the most common analytics being evaluated are power, torque, joint actions, linear velocity, and angular velocity. A person in recovery from an injury or a professional athlete will often have their movements analyzed using the previously mentioned criteria to determine improvement in performance. This assignment will explore the importance of those biomechanical topics and how they are applied in sports biomechanics.