Third, these two models were integrated, creating a computer model of pedaling. 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.