Low Back Muscle Activity in an Automobile Seat with a Lumbar Massage System

This investigation was conducted to determine the effects of a massaging lumbar support system on low back muscle activity. The apparatus included a luxury-level automobile seat, six 10-mm diameter bipolar surface electrodes, an amplifier, an analog-to-digital conversion board, data acquisition software, and a personal computer. Six experimental conditions, each involving a variation of massage time, were considered. The dependent variable was the change in the root mean square variation of the EMG signal. One minute of lumbar massage every 5 min was found to have a beneficial effect on low back muscle activity (as compared to no massage). This may prove to be an extremely important result in the quest to combat low back pain attributable to automobile seating.