Evaluating Bicep Stiffness in Increasing Age Groups

Over many years muscle tissue is continuously broken down and reformed through hypertrophy, where the muscle is damaged and then the fibers are fused together to increase muscle in mass and size. As a person ages muscle tissue makeup changes based on 2 significant factors: lifestyle and genetics. Diagnosing significant injuries in this tissue requires the use of expensive technology (magnetic resonance imaging or electromyography) and invasive techniques. The focus of the study is to find an accurate, cost effective method to analyze muscle stiffness, and to observe a trend between age and muscle stiffness. The devices used in the study are a Modally Hand Impact Hammer, and three miniature PCB accelerometers. In order to capture data, the Impact Hammer is used to excite a shear wave across the Bicep Brachii. From there, the data is collected in a Signal Express software and evaluated for accuracy within MATLAB figures. The data was collected from 10 subjects. There was no clear indication that age affected the stiffness. However, this could be disproved by collecting data from a larger subject pool. The data collected was validated by other studies using tried methods.