Estimation of Muscle Fatigue of Low Back upon the Muscle Stiffness

An estimation of muscle fatigue is very important study and many laboratory researchers had done actively in this field. The excellent measurement and analysis methods, however, have not established yet. The aim of this study was to investigate the muscle fatigue of low back, caused by sitting on the vehicle seat for a long time. The muscle viscoelasticity and the EMG (Electromyogram) were measured. The authors proposed the objective muscle fatigue index that was obtained from the result of PCA (Principal Component Analysis) by using the measured varlables. The objective muscle fatigue index suggests an adequate correlation with the subjective fatigue on the vehicle seat.