The effect of sinusoidal rolling ground motion on lifting biomechanics

The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of ground surface motion on the biomechanical responses of a person performing a lifting task. A boat motion simulator (BMS) was built to provide a sinusoidal ground motion (simultaneous vertical linear translation and a roll angular displacement) that simulates the deck motion on a small fishing boat. Sixteen participants performed lifting, lowering and static holding tasks under conditions of two levels of mass (5 and 10 kg) and five ground moving conditions. Each ground moving condition was specified by its ground angular displacement and instantaneous vertical acceleration: A): +6°, −0.54 m/s2; B): +3°, −0.27 m/s2; C): 0°, 0 m/s2; D): −3°, 0.27 m/s2; and E): −6°, 0.54 m/s2. As they performed these tasks, trunk kinematics were captured using the lumbar motion monitor and trunk muscle activities were evaluated through surface electromyography. The results showed that peak sagittal plane angular acceleration was significantly higher in Condition A than in Conditions C, D and E (698°/s2 vs. 612–617°/s2) while peak sagittal plane angular deceleration during lowering was significantly higher in moving conditions (conditions A and E) than in the stationary condition C (538–542°/s2 vs. 487°/s2). The EMG results indicate that the boat motions tend to amplify the effects of the slant of the lifting surface and the external oblique musculature plays an important role in stabilizing the torso during these dynamic lifting tasks.