Considerations for the Use of Surface Electromyography

EMG is used in rehabilitation research to provide a method to infer muscle function. This paper will present an introduction to interpretation of electromyography (EMG) data for physical therapists. It is important for the physical therapist to have an understanding of the collection and reduction of raw electrical data from the muscle to allow the physical therapist to interpret findings in a research report, and improve planning of clinical research projects with respect to data collection. We will discuss factors that affect the type of EMG collected and the ways in which various common methods of data reduction will impact the findings from a study that uses EMG.