Objective: Exercises for lower leg muscles are important to improve function. To examine the influence of foot position on lower leg muscle activity during heel raises.
Design: Cross-sectional laboratory study.
Setting: Laboratory.
Participants: Fourteen healthy men participated in this study.
Main outcome measures: The muscle activity levels of the tibialis posterior (TP), peroneus longus (PL), flexor digitorum longus (FDL) and medial gastrocnemius (MG) were measured. The heel raises consisted of three foot positions: 1) neutral, 2) 30 degrees abduction, and 3) 30 degrees adduction. The EMG data for five repetitions of each foot position were normalized to maximum voluntary contraction. One-way repeated measure ANOVA was employed for statistical analysis.
Results: The muscle activity level of TP PL and FDL was significantly different between the three foot positions during the heel raises. TP and FDL showed the highest activity level in 30 degrees foot adduction while PL demonstrated the highest activity level in 30 degrees foot abduction.
Conclusions: Heel raises with 30 degrees foot adduction and abduction positions can change lower leg muscle activity; These findings suggest that altering foot posture during the heel raise exercise may benefit patients with impaired TP, PL or FDL function. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
