Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of three different plates($0^{\circ}$, $10^{\circ$}, $20^{\circ}$)under heels on the lower limb muscles and erector spinae during squat exercise. Ten high school korean traditional wrestling players(age: $18.5{\pm}0.7$, weight: $1972.2{\pm}128.5N$, height: $177.8{\pm}6.0cm$, weight of barbell: $1004.5{\pm}132.4N$) performed squat exercise using three different tilting plates under heels at a cadence of 40beats/sec with 80% one repetition maximum load. Surface electrodes were placed on the participants' left and right erector spinae, and rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, tibialis anterior, biceps femoris, medial gastrocnemius, and lateral gastrocnemius in the right lower extremity. One S-VHS camcorder(Panasonic AG456, 60fields/s) was placed 10m to the side of the participant. To synchronize the video and EMG data, a synchronization unit was used for this study. Average and Peak IEMG values were determined for each participant. For each variable, a one-way analysis of variance was used to determine whether there were significant differences among three different tilting plates under heels. When a significant difference was found in plates type, post hoc analyses were performed using the Tukey procedure. A confidence level of p<.05 was used to determine statistical significance. As a result of this study, maximum nEMG values of the tibialis anterior in $0^{\circ}$ plates was significantly higher than the corresponding values for the other plates during the knee extension. This increased activation in the tibialis anterior muscle indicates an increase in displacement of center of gravity of body. It is very likely that additional muscle activation are needed to stop the forward and backward movement. The results also showed that muscular activities of quadriceps femoris and erector spinae were decreased with increasing angle of plates. This suggests that increasing angle of plate may help to sustain the balance and posture of squat exercise. It is considered that very few significant differences were found among three different plates($0^{\circ}$, $10^{\circ}$, $20^{\circ}$) since elite players with much experience in squat exercise, were chosen as a participant of this study. In order to obtain meaningful results regarding the tilting angle of heel plates in squat exercise, kinetic and 3D kinematic analysis will be needed in the future study.