Influence of Gender on the Activity of Agonist-Antagonist Muscles during Maximum Knee and Ankle Contractions

Abstract

Muscle mechanical energy expenditure reflects the neuro-motor strategies employed by the nervous system to analyze human locomotion tasks and is directly related to its efficiency. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of gender on the activity of agonist-antagonist muscles during maximum knee and ankle contraction in males (n1=10) and females (n2=10) adult population. Different movements of knee and ankle used for the maximum contractions were knee flexion and extension, ankle plantar flexion and dorsiflexion. The agonist-antagonist muscles considered for the study were Rectus femoris (Quadriceps Muscle group), Biceps femoris (Hamstring Muscle group), Tibialis Anterior and Soleus. The statistical analysis applied was post hoc analysis to determine least significant differences among the male and female groups. The different groups for classifying these movements were Female Dominant Leg (FDL), Female Non Dominant Leg (FNDL), Male Dominant Leg (MDL) and Male Non Dominant Leg (MNDL). The results showed no significant differences (p≥0.1) in the muscle energy expenditure for different lower limb activities among gender. In addition to this, knee flexion was found to be the activity with minimum energy expenditure in healthy males and females. Active agonist-antagonist muscle pairs during knee and ankle contractions were found to have minimum mechanical energy expenditure. This study is a part of a larger intervention study that is being carried out for designing feedback based FES devices.