ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Performance Science
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Drive to Thrive: Nurturing Growth, Facilitating Resilience, and Learning From Nature for the Wellbeing of Artists and AthletesView all 11 articles
Viola Ergonomics for Thriving and Health Promotion: The Influence of an Instrument's Dimensions, Positioning and Biomechanics on Muscular Effort
Provisionally accepted
Oliver Stephen Margulies1*
Martin Faller1Matthias Nübling1,2
Joshua Avery2
William Verheul2Wulf Hildebrandt3
Horst Hildebrandt1,4,5- 1Zurich University of the Arts, Zürich, Switzerland
- 2GDB mbH, Data and Consulting, Denzlingen, Germany
- 3Philipps-University Marburg, Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Marburg, Germany
- 4Basel Academy of Music, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Basel, Switzerland
- 5Swiss University Centre for Music Physiology, Basel and Zurich, Switzerland
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: The great variability of viola dimensions is known. Contrary to the violin, a lack of scientific knowledge remains on how dimensions, positionings, and biomechanical parameters contribute to the high incidence of medical complaints in violists. Aims: This project investigated how an instrument's dimensions affect objective and subjective levels of muscular effort in a player's left hand and arm together with the instrument's position and biomechanical parameters. Methods: In a laboratory setting, quantitative, intra-individual comparison between two violas V1 and V4, pre-defined in dimensions and positions, and the participants' own instrument was carried out. Muscle activation (EMG) and perceived effort (BORG) of 31 violists (15m/16w, mean age 24.8y, SD=3.6) were recorded while playing a 16-second tune. Measurements with instruments V1 and V4 were conducted in standardised positions (A1, A2, B1, B2) without, and the players' own instrument with ergonomic aids. EMG/BORG data were associated with individual biomechanical parameters (BHM). Results: Positional changes of the instruments' longitudinal and lateral axes highly significantly affect target parameter values. Between the extreme positions A1 vs. B2, the mean delta for EMG decreased 29% relative to A1, (p<0.001), and for perceived effort (BORG) 28% (p<0.001). Comparing the instruments V1 and V4 shows significant differences for BORG (p<0.05) but not for EMG at this data aggregation level. Key finding for biomechanics is the negative correlation between all arm length parameters with EMG and BORG (both p<0.001). Conclusion: Results for the viola re-confirm that instrument positioning affects muscle activation and subjectively perceived effort highly significantly. This expands possibilities to deduce individualised ergonomic solutions, benefitting playing posture, practicing and performance. The prevention and solution of Playing-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (PRMD's) could be facilitated, permitting this group of musicians to thrive. Future sub-analysis aims to identify instrument build effects at single-muscle level and for the hand positions under test. Further research in real-life settings will be needed to understand how longer durations of playing affect the same target parameters.
Keywords: Biomechanics, Electromyography, Muscular effort, Musicians' medicine, prevention, violaergonomics
Received: 15 Dec 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Margulies, Faller, Nübling, Avery, Verheul, Hildebrandt and Hildebrandt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Oliver Stephen Margulies
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.