Characteristics of Muscle Activity in the Lower Extremity during Stepping over Various Obstacle

PURPOSE: This study examined the muscle activity while stepping over obstacles with various heights and widths to provide basic data for training and preventing falls. METHODS: Fifteen normal young adults (seven males and eight females) were recruited. The participants walked on a 5m walkway with six obstacles. The heights of obstacles were 0%, 10%, and 40% of the subject's leg length, and the width of the obstacles was 7cm and 14cm. The participants traversed the course twice per obstacle. The muscle activities of the soleus, tibialis anterior (TA), vastus medialis (VM), and vastus lateralis (VL) were measured using surface electromyography. A Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to examine the differences between obstacles. RESULTS: The muscle activities of the VL and the soleus of the stance leg and lead leg after crossing over the obstacles increased with increasing width, and there were significant differences in muscle activities between obstacle width (p<.05) except for the muscle activity of TA of the stance leg after crossing over the obstacles. A significant difference in muscle activities was observed according to the height of the obstacles with 14 cm (p<.05) except for the muscle activity of the VL, soleus of the leading leg, and TA of the stance leg CONCLUSION: The role of the VL and Soleus increased with increasing obstacle width, and the overall muscle activities of the lower extremities increased with increasing obstacle height. These results can be used to suggest a program to prevent falls.