Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the various knee angles and ground state on the muscular activities and fatigue of the ankle muscles by integrated electromyograms (iEMG) and median frequency of tibialis anterior (TA), peroneus longus (PL), flexor digitorum longus (FDL) and gastrocnemius (GC). Ten healthy male subjects were participated into stable and balance ball sessions at four angles of knee joint. The surface electromyograms (sEMG) were recorded from the TA, PL, FDL and GC on stable and balance ball with full weight bearing at four knee angles of $0^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$ and $45^{\circ}$. The time serial data of the surface electromyographic signals were transformed into integrated and frequency serial data by fast fourier transformation. On the stable ground, the iEMG signals of the TA, PL, FDL and GC were significantly higher at $45^{\circ}$ and $30^{\circ}$ of knee angles than $0^{\circ}$ and $15^{\circ}$ of knee flexion (p<0.05). On the balance ball, the iEMG of the TA, PL, FDL and GC were significantly higher at $45^{\circ}$ and $30^{\circ}$ of knee angles than $0^{\circ}$ and $15^{\circ}$ of knee flexion (p<0.05). The median frequency of the TA, PL, FDL and GC were significantly lower at $45^{\circ}$ and $30^{\circ}$ of knee angles than $0^{\circ}$ and $15^{\circ}$ of knee on the stable ground (p<0.05). On the balance ball, also the median frequency of the TA, PL, FDL and GC were significantly lower at $45^{\circ}$ and $30^{\circ}$ of knee angles than $0^{\circ}$ and $15^{\circ}$ of knee flexion (p<0.05). The iEMG of the TA, PL, FDL and GC were significantly higher on the balance ball at $0^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$ and $45^{\circ}$ of knee angles compared with stable ground. The median frequency of the TA, PL, FDL and GC were significantly lower on the balance ball at $0^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$ and $45^{\circ}$ of knee angles compared with stable ground. These results indicate that the ground conditions and angles of the knee joint involved to muscular activities and fatigue of ankles muscles, may performed at first on stable ground and then balance ball in order to $0^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$ and $45^{\circ}$ of knee flexion.