Changes in lower limb muscle activity based on angle of ankle abduction during lunge exercise

Abstract

[Purpose] This study compared the activity of the quadriceps femoris muscle according to the angle of ankle abduction during a lunge exercise. [Subjects and Methods] Fifteen male healthy volunteers participated in the study. All participants performed the lunge exercise with different angles of ankle abduction (0°, 20°, 40°, 60°). The activity of the rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus medialis oblique (VMO) muscles were recorded for the four angles by using a surface electromyography system. [Results] There were significant differences between the rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus medialis oblique (VMO) with every angle of the ankle joint. The most significantly increased muscle activity was evident in the vastus medialis oblique (VMO) when the ankle abduction was 60°. [Conclusion] These findings suggest that as the ankle abduction angle increases during the lunge exercise, the muscle activity of the quadriceps femoris muscle increases and this could be helpful in the selective muscle strengthening of the vastus medialis oblique muscle (VMO) with the ankle in the 60° abduction position.

Biomechanics of lower limb in badminton lunge: a systematic scoping review

“…The next step was to launch the lunging step striking on the force plate and hit the target (shuttlecock). Two included articles required the participants to explicitly extend the knee (i.e., lunging leg) in the second step to achieve the maximum lunge distance ( Lam, Ding & Qu, 2017 ; Lam et al, 2017 ), while one included article evaluated the sensitivity of ankle abduction angle ( Choi & Lee, 2017 ). The third step (recovery phase) was to return to the initial position as fast as they could in gameplay.…”

“…Muscle activity of lower extremity was evaluated using either electromyography (EMG) or musculoskeletal model. Choi & Lee (2017) evaluated the EMG of the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, and vastus medialis oblique in different angles of ankle abduction during lunges. Using a computational simulation approach, Lund et al (2017) input the kinematic and kinetic data into a musculoskeletal model to determine the positive work of passive tendon and muscle elements for gastrocnemius and soleus.…”