The Correlation of Mechanical and Physiological Measures of Work for Movement of the Upper Limb

Abstract

This article discusses an experimental approach to the correlation of some mechanical measures of work with some physiological measures of work for a task performed by the upper limb. The seven mechanical measures of work considered were velocity and acceleration of movement, total mechanical energy, force, torque, linear impulse, and angular impulse. The three physiological measures were pulmonary ventilation rate, pulse rate, and oxygen consumption. Pulmonary ventilation rate was found to correlate best with all the mechanical measures, with shoulder angular impulse and average shoulder torque having the highest correlation of the mechanical measures (r = 0.53).