Analysis of the Repeated One-Leg Heel-Rise Test of Ankle Plantar Flexors in Manual Muscle Testing

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the repeated one-leg heel-rise test method of ankle plantar flexors in MMT with kinetic measuring devices and electromyograms (EMG). Seven healthy young males (age, 23 ± 2 y) with no prior history of fractures or surgery involving the lower limbs participated in this study. The ankle and knee motions from flexible electrogoniometers (EGM), ground reaction forces (GRF) and center of pressure (COP) from one force plate and the root-mean-square (RMS) and mean-power-frequency (MPF) from EMG in the medial head of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles during the repeated one-leg heel-rise test. Kinetic and kinematic data from EGM, GRF and COP were unchanged during the tests. Although the RMS in both muscles and the MPF in the soleus muscles were unchanged during this test, the MPF in the gastrocnemius muscles decreased with the number of iterations (r=-0.79, p<0.001). The MPF of the gastrocnemius muscles in the late phase was significantly lower that in the early and middle phases (respectively, p<0.05, p<0.05). Our results show that this repeated motion method estimates muscle endurance rather than the muscle power.

Analysis of Knee Flexion Angles During 2 Clinical Versions of the Heel Raise Test to Assess Soleus and Gastrocnemius Function

“…FIGURE 2 illustrates the real-time measures of the knee flexion angle captured by the motion analysis system for a participant (selected at random) during the early and late phase for both the used for subsequent analyses. 24 A schematic summary of the data reduction process is illustrated in FIGURE 1.…”

Peak triceps surae muscle activity is not specific to knee flexion angles during MVIC

“…This provided insight on TS muscle activity in standing with 0°KF (Ball and Scurr, 2010;Heers et al, 2003;Kasahara et al, 2007;Perry et al, 1981), 20°KF (Jönhagen et al, 2009), 40°KF (Perry et al, 1981), and 60°KF (Bogey et al, 2003); however, combining and comparing results across studies was not feasible given the heterogeneity in research aims, procedures, equipment, normalization methods, and/or type of EMG processing techniques. Although we cannot offer a gold standard set of KF angles, our results still recommend performing MVIC trials in at least two KF angles in standing rather than in sitting; one near 0°KF and the other near 45°KF, which appears to optimize the acquisition of peak EMG amplitudes for SOL, GM, and GL.…”

Gender Differences in the Curl-up and the Double-leg-lower Tests

“…Manual muscle testing (MMT) is a method that is widely used in both the fi eld and clinical settings because it does not need any special equipment and is relatively simple to perform [15][16][17] . However, the issue of gender in MMT for trunk muscles remains unresolved 12,[17][18][19][20][21][22] . Furthermore, there is another issue in MMT for the trunk muscles that is often a source of confusion for clinicians.…”