Alterations in intermuscular coordination underlying isokinetic exercise after a stroke and their implications on neurorehabilitation.

Stroke-affected upper limbs seemed to modularize the activation of the shoulder and elbow muscles in a fairly similar way to that of neurologically intact individuals during isokinetic movements. Compared with free (i.e., unconstrained) movement, exercise under biomechanical constraints including the isokinetic constraint might promote the activation of muscle synergies independently in stroke survivors. We postulated the effect of biomechanical constraints on the intermuscular coordination and suggested a possible intermuscular coordination-based rehabilitation protocol that provides the biomechanical constraint appropriate to a trainee throughout the progress of rehabilitation.