Effect of abduction and external rotation of the hip joint on muscle onset time during prone hip extension with knee flexion

Abstract

[Purpose] This study investigated the effect of hip position on muscle onset time during prone hip extension with knee flexion. [Subjects] The study included 21 healthy male volunteers. [Methods] Muscle onset times of the right gluteus maximus, right hamstrings, bilateral lumbar erector spinae, and bilateral lumbar multifidus were measured using surface electromyography during right hip extension with knee flexion in the prone position. Measurements were made with the hip in 3 positions: (1) neutral, (2) abduction, and (3) abduction and external rotation. [Results] Gluteus maximus onset relative to the hamstrings was significantly earlier with hip abduction and with hip abduction and external rotation compared with that with the hip in the neutral position. Gluteus maximus onset relative to the hamstrings was significantly earlier with hip abduction and external rotation compared with that with hip abduction. The bilateral multifidus and left lumbar erector spinae onset times relative to the hamstrings were significantly earlier with hip abduction and external rotation compared with those with hip abduction and with the hip in the neutral position. [Conclusion] Abduction and external rotation of the hip during prone hip extension with knee flexion is effective for advancing the onset times of the gluteus maximus, bilateral multifidus, and contralateral lumbar erector spinae.

Trunk and hip muscles activation patterns in subjects with and without chronic low back pain: a systematic review

“…Concerning the patterns in healthy individuals, there was moderate evidence [26,27] and weak evidence [13,17,24,25] that the HAM and ES muscles were almost simultaneously activated before the onset of the leg movement during PHE, while they exhibited inconsistent and variable patterns in the remaining studies [16,18,22,23,28]. GM was significantly delayed and constituted the last muscle to activate during PHE in all studies which examined healthy participants.…”

“…Although most of the studies in this review used PHE test starting from neutral to maximum hyperextension, in 2 studies the participants started the test with hip in 30° flexion to maximum extension [16,28]. These papers suggested that those subjects with a limited end range of extension would be performing trunk hyperextension instead of hip extension during prone leg lifting.…”

“…The range of age was 20-36 years. in 7 studies, both genders were included [13,16,18,[22][23][24][25], while in 4 studies, only male subjects participated [17,[26][27][28]. The characteristics of the included studies are presented in Table 1.…”

“…Finally, the ninth study investigated the effect of 3 hip positions -neutral, abduction, and abduction with external rotation -on muscle onset time during PHE with knee flexion [28]. GM was the last muscle to activate in the neutral position.…”

“…Bilateral multifidus (MF) and CES onset relative to HAM was significantly earlier in the abduction with external rotation position than in the neutral and abduction positions. The sequence of muscle contraction was HAM-CES-iES-GM in the neutral position, iES-GM-HAM-CES in the abduction position, and CES-iES-GM-HAM in the abduction with external rotation position [28].…”