Effects of detachable forefoot outsole angles and shapes on muscle activity of the lower extremity during downhill walking

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of detachable forefoot outsole on muscle activity of the lower extremity during downhill walking. Methods Thirteen male university students (age: 23.5±2.1 yrs, height: 175.7±4.6 cm, weight: 651.9±55.5 N) who have no musculoskeletal disorder were recruited as the subjects. Each subject walked down 20° ramp with forefoot’s design for the detachable outsole’s angle(5°, 10° and 20°) and type(A and B). To assess the myoelectric activities of selected muscles, six of surface EMG(QEMG8, Laxtha Inc. korea, sampling frequency = 1,024 Hz, gain = 1,000, input impedance > 1012 Ω, CMRR > 100 dB) electrodes with on-site pre-amplification circuitry were attached to ES, RF, BF, TA, LG, and MG. For each dependent variable, two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to determine whether there were significant differences among forefoot’s design for the detachable outsole’s angle and type (p<.05). When correlation effect was not statistically significant, post hoc analyses were performed using the multiple comparison through bonferroni, and if correlation effect was statistically significant, one-way ANOVA was performed as for the form of outsole which is an inter-group variable in order to find out simple main effect, and the paired t-test was performed to find out the angle of outsole, which is an intra-group variable. Results In IDLS phase, In terms of Rectus Femoris, 10°-B outsole showed statistically higher muscle movement than 5°-B, 5°-A outsole showed statistically higher muscle movement than 5°-B, 20°-A outsole showed statistically higher muscle movement than 20°-B. Among these outsoles, Conclusion 5°-B outsole was found to the most useful outsole for improving stability and controlling the bodily movement due to the body weight load when walking down the ramp.