Optimizing Vertical Jump

Literature Review by Rueben Marcellos

This paper will explain and review the research that has been done on the optimization of the human vertical jump. In the research that I have read, the body has been reduced to a single lower limb with three rigid bodies (Gollhofer et al., 1998). There are nine muscle-tendon actuators representing properties of muscle during force generation. Minimal muscle excitations of the jump are measured by the trajectory of the hip joint as a rheonomic constraint and force plates determine the contact forces. Validity is assessed by calculating muscle excitations with the registered surface EMG of the muscles (Gollhofer et al., 1998).

This is very important and interesting research for all coaches and athletes, as well as biomechanists. It is very hard to measure muscle forces directly because of the invasive methods that are needed to get accurate results, but researchers use systems called static optimization and dynamic o

ptimization to estimate results (Gollhofer et al., 1998). The central nervous system sends electrical signals to the body to produce motion and these electrical excitations produce muscle forces, which are related to joint torques by the moment arms of those muscles (Gollhofer et al., 1998). An appropriate model of the musculoskeletal system can make it possible to simulate complex human movements and to resolve neural excitations that are responsible for the measured movement pattern (Gollhofer et al., 1998). The research that I reviewed had a goal to simulate a measured complex jump movement consisting of an upward propulsion, a flying and a landing phase (Gollhofer et al., 1998).

A vertical one-legged jump was used to simulate human movement. In this procedure there are three phases (Gollhofer et al., 1998). The upward propulsion, a flying and a landing phase are the three phases. The active lower limb is described separately. Knowledge of three-dimensional and ground reaction forces is required for th

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