Surface electromyography (sEMG) has been widely used in evaluating muscle fatigue among athletes where electrodes are attached on the skin during the activity. Recently, infrared thermography technique (IRT) has gain popularity and shown to be another preferred method in monitoring and predicting muscle fatigue non-obstructively. This paper investigates the correlation between surface temperature and muscle activation parameters obtained using both IRT and sEMG methods simultaneously. Twenty healthy subjects were required to perform a repetitive calf raise exercise with various loads attached around their ankle for 3 min to induce fatigue on the targeted gastrocnemius muscles. Average temperature and temperature difference information were extracted from thermal images, while root mean square (RMS) and median frequency (MF) were extracted from sEMG signals. Spearman statistical analysis performed shows that there is a significant correlation between average temperature with RMS and between temperature difference with MF values at p<0.05. While ANOVA test conducted shows that there is significant impact of loads on RMS and MF where F=12.61 and 3.59, respectively, at p< 0.05. This study suggested that skin surface temperature can be utilized in monitoring and predicting muscle fatigue in low intensity dynamic exercise and can be extended to other dynamic exercises.

Graphical abstract

中文翻译：

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红外热成像技术对低强度动态运动肌肉疲劳的无障碍监测

表面肌电图 (sEMG) 已广泛用于评估运动员的肌肉疲劳，其中电极在活动期间附着在皮肤上。最近，红外热成像技术 (IRT) 越来越受欢迎，并被证明是另一种无障碍监测和预测肌肉疲劳的首选方法。本文研究了同时使用 IRT 和 sEMG 方法获得的表面温度与肌肉激活参数之间的相关性。20 名健康受试者被要求在脚踝周围进行 3 分钟的重复小腿抬高运动，以诱导目标腓肠肌疲劳。从热图像中提取平均温度和温差信息，而均方根 (RMS) 和中频 (MF) 是从 sEMG 信号中提取的。执行的 Spearman 统计分析表明，平均温度与 RMS 之间以及温差与 MF 值之间存在显着相关性。p<0.05。虽然进行的 ANOVA 测试表明负载对 RMS 和 MF 有显着影响，其中F = 12.61和3.59，分别为p < 0.05。该研究表明，皮肤表面温度可用于监测和预测低强度动态运动中的肌肉疲劳，并可扩展到其他动态运动。

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