Quadriceps Muscle Activity During Exercise

Abstract

Various forms of exercises are imparted for patients with lower extremity problems. These exercises are helpful in strengthening the muscles of the lower limb mainly those of quadriceps and hamstring. This study was intended to investigate the activity of vastusmedialis oblique and vastuslateralis during selected exercises of Static Quadriceps Exercise (SQE), Inner Range Quadriceps exercise (IRQ), Straight Leg Raise (SLR), Active Knee Extension exercise (AKE) and semisquat. About 50 healthy individuals (15 Males and 35 Females) in the age group of 18–24 years (Male= 21.2 ± 1.21, Female= 20.3 ± 0.8) were recruited for the study based on the inclusion criteria. Surface electromyographic electrodes were affixed to Vastusmedialis Oblique (VMO) and vastuslateralis (VL) muscle. Each subject was advised to perform all the five exercises, and the muscle activity during each exercise was recorded using Myotrac Infiniti, and the data were analysed with the aid of Biograph Infiniti software. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS version 22.0. The findings of the research indicated that inner range quadriceps exercise was significantly better in facilitating VMO and VL with no significant difference between the two during various exercise. It was also observed that the VMO/VL ratio was similar in all the exercise indicating equal activation of both muscles.