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Assessment of Muscular Strength for Male and Female Backpacking Task

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Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) (IEA 2018)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 820))

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Abstract

Backpacking tasks are common. Back carrying, like many other manual materials handling (MMH) tasks, could result in muscular fatigue. Assessment of muscular strength recovery upon muscular fatigue is helpful to control musculoskeletal injuries and rest allowance management of the workplace. This research investigated back muscular fatigue for backpacking tasks of different loads via analyses of muscular strength decrease, recover, heart rate and subjective rating of physical exertion. Twelve adult participants (6 males and 6 females) were requested to carry a bag with 0%, 12.5%, and 25% of their body weights on their backs and walked on treadmill until they could no longer walk under three different speeds (2,4, and 6 km/hour) and two different ramp angles (0 and 10°). After the walk, the decrease of back muscular strength percentages (MVC) were measured in male and female subjects. In addition, the subjective rating on body fatigue was measured using the Borg RPE. It was found that back strength decreased after the carrying tasks, female subjects were more resistant to muscular fatigue than male subjects. The predictive model of RPE were been determined in Regression Equation, between the RPE score and MVC% are correlation coefficient. The RPE of results after the back-packing task were consistent with those of the muscular strength data.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Safety Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, 710054, Shaanxi, China

    Shui Cheng Tian & Ying Chen

  2. Key Laboratory of Western Mines and Hazard Prevention, Ministry of Education of China, Xi’an, 710054, Shaanxi, China

    Shui Cheng Tian & Ying Chen

  3. Department of Industrial Management, Chung Hua University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

    Kai Way Li

  4. College of Management, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, 710054, Shaanxi, China

    Hong Xia Li

Authors
  1. Shui Cheng Tian
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  2. Ying Chen
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  3. Kai Way Li
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  4. Hong Xia Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ying Chen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of the Republic of San Marino, San Marino, San Marino

    Sebastiano Bagnara

  2. Centre for Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety, Tuscany Region, Florence, Italy

    Riccardo Tartaglia

  3. Centre for Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety, Tuscany Region, Florence, Italy

    Sara Albolino

  4. Fraunhofer FKIE, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Thomas Alexander

  5. International Ergonomics Association, Tokyo, Japan

    Yushi Fujita

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Tian, S.C., Chen, Y., Li, K.W., Li, H.X. (2019). Assessment of Muscular Strength for Male and Female Backpacking Task. In: Bagnara, S., Tartaglia, R., Albolino, S., Alexander, T., Fujita, Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018). IEA 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 820. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96083-8_31

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