Effect of biomechanical footwear on upper and lower leg muscle activity in comparison with knee brace and normal walking

To evaluate the activity of knee stabilizing muscles while using custom-made biomechanical footwear (BF) and to compare it when walking barefoot and with a knee brace (Unloader®). Seventeen healthy working-aged (mean age: 29 years; standard deviation: 8 years) individuals participated. The knee brac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of electromyography and kinesiology Vol. 57; no. NA; p. 102528
Main Authors: Ylinen, Jari, Pennanen, Antti, Weir, Adam, Häkkinen, Arja, Multanen, Juhani
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2021
Subjects:
Biomechanical device
Biomechanical Phenomena - physiology
Braces
Electromyography - methods
Exercise therapy
Female
Footwear
Gait analysis
Humans
Knee brace
Knee Joint - physiology
Knee osteoarthritis
Leg - physiology
Lower Extremity - physiology
Male
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Shoes
Surface electromyography
Walking - physiology
Young Adult
Biomechanical device
Knee osteoarthritis
Footwear
Exercise therapy
Surface electromyography
Knee brace
Gait analysis
ISSN:1050-6411, 1873-5711, 1873-5711
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:To evaluate the activity of knee stabilizing muscles while using custom-made biomechanical footwear (BF) and to compare it when walking barefoot and with a knee brace (Unloader®). Seventeen healthy working-aged (mean age: 29 years; standard deviation: 8 years) individuals participated. The knee brace was worn on the right knee and BF in both legs. Surface electromyography (sEMG) data was recorded bilaterally from vastus medialis (VM), semitendinosus (ST), tibialis anterior (TA) and lateral gastrocnemius (LG) muscles during walking, and repeated-measures ANOVA with a post-hoc t-test was used to determine differences between the different walking modalities (barefoot, brace and BF). Averaged sEMG was significantly higher when walking with BF than barefoot or knee brace in the ST muscles, in the right LG, and left TA muscle. It was significantly lower when walking with the brace compared to barefoot in the right ST and LG muscles, and left TA muscle. Analysis of the ensemble-averaged sEMG profiles showed earlier activation of TA muscles when walking with BF compared to other walking modalities. BF produced greater activation in evaluated lower leg muscles compared to barefoot walking. Thus BF may have an exercise effect in rehabilitation and further studies about its effectiveness are warranted.
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ISSN:1050-6411
1873-5711
1873-5711
DOI:10.1016/j.jelekin.2021.102528