The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of customized foot orthotics on lower extremity muscle activity and fatigue during march in combat boots. Four volunteers with normal foot and five volunteers with excessive pronation foot among soldiers on service were fitted with foot orthotics. The electromyography signal from activity of low extremity muscles were collected with surface electromyography device during walking on the treadmill. The walk on the treadmill was performed with a speed of 4.5 km/h. The experiment design for reseach wes composed two experimentation. The first experiment was to examine the muscle activity of lower extremity between normal foot and excessive pronator foot during march. The second experiment was to examine the muscle activity of lower extremity between wearing orthotics and no wearing orthotics. These data were analyzed by the averaged integral EMG and the mean power frequency. The analyzed results were compared by independent T-test method and paired T-test method of SPSS(windows version 12.0).The result of the study were the muscle activity on pronator foot tend to increase during march but a statistically significant increase in muscle fatigue of vastus lateralis and fibularis longus. A statistically significant decrease in muscle activity of anterior tibialis and fibularis longus and fatigue occurred using the customized foot orthotics in volunteers with excessive pronation foot compared to volunteers with normal foot. Clinically, the application of orthotics for the soldiers with excessive pronation foot appears to delay muscle fatigue and prevent from variable foot injuries. This may contribute to enhancing fighting efficiency.
