The University of Seville (US) and the Pablo de Olavide University (UPO) have joined forces to promote the creation of Flexor Biomechanics , a business project with a pioneering technology in the world that was born from the need expressed by the previous head of the medical services of the Sevilla Fútbol Club to have a "reliable" test that measures the behavior of the footballers' muscles objectively. For its part, Real Betis Balompie showed its interest last year in this device, which has been selected to participate in the thirteenth edition of the Transfer Forum , which was held in Malaga from March 20 to 22, and whose objective is connect the national innovation ecosystem with companies, promoting the transfer of scientific and technological knowledge.

Both universities have been perfecting the machine for more than ten years , which is currently in the manufacturing phase of a prototype that will allow it to go on the market in 2025 . A moment that awaits hospitals, medical, sports, rehabilitation and research centers that have already become interested in the results of Flexor Biomechanics.

In just a few minutes, the device obtains quantitative data that determines certain mechanical properties of the muscles of the lower extremities. In this way, it allows the evolution of individual athletes to be monitored over time. Another applicability may be to analyze the progress of a person who has suffered an injury in their recovery process, in a postoperative period or in cases of sarcopenia - loss of muscle mass due to aging.

The key is that the result is an objective numerical value and does not depend on the will of the person undergoing the test. In addition, it is a non-stressful and non-invasive test , unlike other procedures. The initial idea was to use engineering and mechanical foundations to characterize the response of muscles in the ability to generate movement by measuring the stiffness and viscosity of the muscle-tendon complexes.

To do this, they had Federico París García , a graduate in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and currently a professor at the Department of Sports and Informatics at the Pablo de Olavide University, who developed his doctoral thesis specifically to build this device. "When a person suffers an injury that affects the plantar flexors, such as a tear of muscle fibers in the calves, an immobilization process is normally carried out which, if maintained over time, leads to muscle atrophy, altering its viscoelastic properties" , says Professor Paris García.

Therefore, the device is focused on hospitals, rehabilitation centers and other training or high-performance centers that wish to monitor recovery from injuries. "Given that muscles have the ability to modulate their response depending on the demand, it is necessary to develop a protocol that encompasses different test loads to have a complete assessment."

This is explained by Alberto Barroso Caro , professor in the Department of Continuous Media Mechanics and Theory of Structures at the Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville. To do this, professors from both universities have invented a mechanical system of moving masses in the device, capable of exerting different forces on the knee and which, thanks to a slight impact, causes the front leg to oscillate involuntarily. All of this is monitored through computer software created for this purpose and coupled to the device that governs all the parameters in an automated manner. This software has undergone various modifications, evolving depending on the needs of the test.

"The mechanical response of the muscle-tendon complex depends in turn on the behavior of the elements that compose it (muscle tissue and tendon tissue)," the researchers say. But this unique device offers, in a maximum of 15 minutes , much more detailed information on the viscoelastic properties of the complete system, which will allow evaluators to make more accurate decisions both for the improvement of physical performance and for the evaluation of muscle injuries. skeletal structures, improving possible treatments.

With the goal in 2025, the team is already thinking about developing a smaller prototype to achieve the same purpose in the upper extremities, which would help to monitor the evolution of patients with difficulties in the upper body or to calibrate performance in racquet sports. One more challenge for Flexor Biomechanics, a combination of ingenuity, innovation and tenacity in a business project that cannot find the ceiling to measure its strength.