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Cackerot69
New member
OK, let my try to squash this EMG bug...
Electromyography (EMG) tests are not considered accurate in measuring muscle fiber stimulation during the eccentric (lowering) portion of exercise, because during eccentric contraction less fibers are stimulated but damaged to a greater degree. Therefore on an EMG test it would read that there is little activity when in fact there is a lot of muscle fiber stimulation, and because of this EMG tests are not accurate in predicting hypertrophy. The EMG test in itself is also flawed because just knowing which motor units are firing doesn’t mean you can tell which fibers are contracting (which is what EMG tests determine). The problem with emphasizing different portions or heads of muscles in in the way they are innervated. Motor neurons are aligned along the center of the muscle, each neuron innervates a number of fibers (the number of fibers varies). When that line of neurons are fired, all of them fire. In other words - when a muscle contracts, it all contracts making sectional hypertrophy impossible. Another often overlooked fact is that even though there may be a different level of activation in fibers, this difference is so small that disproportionate hypertrophy would not result. Additionally the number of test subjects are very small, Bompa usually uses 3-5 subjects which leaves a lot of room for error. I could go on and on, but suffice to say that EMG tests are not accurate measures of muscle fiber stimulation and are not capable of predicting hypertrophy.
Electromyography (EMG) tests are not considered accurate in measuring muscle fiber stimulation during the eccentric (lowering) portion of exercise, because during eccentric contraction less fibers are stimulated but damaged to a greater degree. Therefore on an EMG test it would read that there is little activity when in fact there is a lot of muscle fiber stimulation, and because of this EMG tests are not accurate in predicting hypertrophy. The EMG test in itself is also flawed because just knowing which motor units are firing doesn’t mean you can tell which fibers are contracting (which is what EMG tests determine). The problem with emphasizing different portions or heads of muscles in in the way they are innervated. Motor neurons are aligned along the center of the muscle, each neuron innervates a number of fibers (the number of fibers varies). When that line of neurons are fired, all of them fire. In other words - when a muscle contracts, it all contracts making sectional hypertrophy impossible. Another often overlooked fact is that even though there may be a different level of activation in fibers, this difference is so small that disproportionate hypertrophy would not result. Additionally the number of test subjects are very small, Bompa usually uses 3-5 subjects which leaves a lot of room for error. I could go on and on, but suffice to say that EMG tests are not accurate measures of muscle fiber stimulation and are not capable of predicting hypertrophy.
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