Normal strength of the major human muscle groups

One of the causes of the impairment of mobility is the reduction of muscular strength which may have several different origins. A need for the assessment of such a reduction is most likely to arise when it is too late to measure the original normal strength of the given subject. However, such relevant parameters as sex, age and height will be known and others such as weight and build can be deduced with a fair accuracy either from medical records or from the recollection of the patient. Hence, as a substitute for a direct measurement, an assessment of the most probable amount of reduction in strength can be attempted by comparing the actual strength of the patient with that deduced from the measured and assessed values of the above mentioned parameters provided a relationship between the strength and these parameters is known. A total gross strength is here defined as the arithmetic sum of the moments which the subject is capable of exerting isometrically by using in turn the following major muscle groups: neck flexors, hip extensors, knee extensors, shoulder adductors and elbow extensors.