THE EFFECT OF KNEE TAPING ON THE EMG ACTIVITY OF THE VASTUS MEDIALIS OBLIQUE AND VASTUS LATERALIS MUSCLES 1202

Abstract

Patellofemoral pain syndrome is a common complaint in athletes and physically active individuals and has long been a major concern of Sports Medicine practitioners. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effect of different patella taping procedures on the electromyographic (EMG) activity of the Vastus Medialis Oblique (VMO) and Vastus Lateralis (VL) muscles. Four female university students volunteered for this study. The subjects had a history of previous knee pathology and current symptoms of Patellofemoral pain. The EMG signals were recorded using surface electrodes. Average EMG was obtained by rectifying and smoothing the raw waveform using an electronic contour follower integrator with a time constant of 50 ms. The EMG activity was normalized to the percentage of maximum activity for each muscle before being analyzed. An electro-goniometer was used to measure knee flexion angle. After placement of the surface electrodes each subject performed 2 maximum isometric trials with a knee angle of 90°. After 10 minutes of rest the subjects performed three 10 sec repetitions of a submaximal wall squat exercise at a rate of 30 per sec under four conditions; control (No Tape), taping on a medial, lateral and no glide position. The results indicated that the total EMG activity produced by the VMO and VL muscles throughout the ROM was significantly different between the taping conditions(p<.05). The VL activity was reduced for all taping conditions. The peak EMG activity of the VMO and VL muscles was significantly different between the two muscles and between the taping conditions (p<.05). The most important finding was that the VMO:VL ratio increased for all taping conditions and were all above 1.0.