• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.789-795
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• 2010

This study aimed to investigate the effect of differing heel height on static balance and muscle activation of ankle joint during standing. Twenty-one young females volunteered to participate in this study. To measure balance function and EMG activity of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles, the subjects were asked to perform 1-min standing with eyes open and closed state under 3 different heel heights: barefoot, 3cm, and 7cm each. During the standing, postural sway distance and area, and EMG activity of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles were significantly augmented with increasing heel height (p<0.05). For comparison between eyes open and closed in terms of postural sway area and EMG activity of tibialis anterior muscle, barefoot and 7cm height conditions respectively showed significant differences as well. The findings indicate that high-heeled shoes may have disadvantages in maintaining balance function because of extra-muscular effort of ankle joint. This study provides useful information that will inform future studies on how heel height affects muscle activity around the ankle joint in aspects of static and dynamic balance.

• Journal of International Academy of Physical Therapy Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.562-565
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• 2013

The fact that flip-flops, one of many different types of unstable shoes, are light and relatively easy to put on, accounts for their popularity among people. But because flip-flops rely heavily on the support of a single thong between your first and second toes, they impose a huge amount of pressure onto lower leg. Thus in the following experiment we tried to examine the different effects of flip-flops and running shoes in terms of their effect on muscle activity and fatigue of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius during walking. In order to measure an electromyogram we used Free EMG system. 10 men and 10 women in running shoes ran on treadmills for 15 minutes at 4.8km/h, 2 days later the same experiment was carried out, but this time, in flip-flops. p value turned out to be greater than .05 and thus there was no considerable difference between the effects of flip-flops and running shoes on muscle activity and fatigue during walking. Therefore we conclude that despite the fact that flip-flops are considered unstable, their effects on muscle activity and fatigue of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius are negligible.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate the muscular activity and muscle strength for swing track of upper limbs during rowing exercise. Subject was all twenty healthy adults and they were divided into linear exercise group and elliptical exercise group in random. Subjects performed rowing exercise 3-times for a week and performed all 8-weeks. We measured realtime-surface EMG. Also we measured joint torque of elbow, ankle and lumbar in subjects using BIODEX. The result showed that when rowing exercise, elliptical track exercise had higher muscular activity in trapezius, deltoid, erector spinae, rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gastronemius than linear track exercise on more many muscle of upper and lower limbs. Also elbow joint torque and lumbar joint torque was more higher too. but linear exercise also had higher muscular activity in multifidus, tibilalis anterior than elliptical track exercise. According to this experiment, we found out that elliptical track was more efficient than linear track.