Fourth, by assuming the nervous system can excite muscles independently, if necessary, a computer simulation was derived for maximum-speed startup pedaling. The simulation was found to agree with kinesiological and biomechanical measurements of subjects performing the same task. Thus, the musculoskeletal rules for pedaling could now be studied. All muscles have a specific phase in the pedaling cycle where they must be excited in order to produce force and energy. Some muscles dominate the production of energy required to pedal.
Some muscles deliver energy directly to the crank.
Other muscles deliver energy to the limb segments, where it is stored as kinetic energy, and still other muscles transfer this stored energy to the crank. Some muscles participate in more than one of these energetic mechanisms. Computer simulations of pedaling, assuming neuromotor control rules less complex than those associated with independent control of each muscle, revealed that maximum-speed startup pedaling can be replicated with a simple neuromotor strategy. Each muscle group also alternates with the comparable muscle group in the other leg. Other simulations showed that this neuromotor control strategy of exciting two pairs of reciprocating muscle groups in each leg in alternation with the muscle groups in the other leg can accommodate steady pedaling at a variety of cadences and workloads by assuming the control strategy has the additional capability of adjusting one other control parameter, the average amount of excitation to the muscles.