Musculoskeletal Modeling of Lumbar Spine under Follower Loads

Abstract

The lumbar spine can support a much larger compressive load if it is applied along a follower load path that approximates the tangent to the curve of the lumbar spine compared with the vertical load path. In order to investigate the quantitative role of multisegmental muscles to the generation of follower loading patterns, a mathematical model of the human lumbar spine subjected to the follower load was developed in the frontal plane using the finite element method. © Springer-Verlag 2004.