The Effects of Corrective Hip Joint Exercises and Foot Orthotics on RCSP, Ankle's Range of Motion, and Core Muscle Strength for Middle School Students with Pes Planus

Abstract

Objective : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of hip joint exercises and orthotics on RCSP, ankle's range of motion, and core muscle strength of middle school students with pes planus. Method : Out of the original pool of 200 students, 60 students with pes planus (RCSP < -2) were selected for the study. The selected 60 students were then divided into four groups. The first group was a combined orthotics and exercise group (12 students), the second was the orthotics-only group (9 students), the third was the exercise-only group (8 students), and the last was the control group (10 students). Exercise groups worked out twice a week for 60 minutes per session over 8 weeks. The independent variables were corrective hip joint exercises and orthotics. The dependant variables consisted of kinematic and kinetic variables. The kinematic variables were RCSP, and ankle's range of motion (dorsiflexion and plantarflexion). The kinetic variables were muscles forces that consist in core muscle strength, which are hip joint adduction, abduction, and flexion muscles forces. Statistical analysis was performed via SPSS 18.0 with multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and a paired t-test was used. Results : The left foot was more responsive to the treatments, both exercise and orthotics, than the right foot. RCSP improved significantly in the left foot for the first and third groups. Only the first group significantly improved hip joint adduction, abduction, and flexion muscles' strengths. As for the ankle's range of motion of the left foot, plantarflexion showed improvement when treated with exercise, orthotics, or both. Conclusion : This study found that exercise is more effective in correcting RCSP and foot orthotics is more effective in reinforcing core muscle strength. Future studies should expand on these results to examine the relationship between the ankle, hip, and pelvis.

The effect of pes planus on the biomechanics of the lower extremity, balance, fall risk, and performance

“…Some of these are the angulations observed in the subtalar joint as a result of the increase in loading to the medial, and thus, the pronation of the foot. The excessive pronation observed in the foot, together with pes planus, causes biomechanical changes in the ankle, knee, and hip joint [25,28]. Agoada et al [26] showed that subtalar angle was correlated with excessive pronated foot and pes planus as it can be seen in this study.…”

Effect of Taping Therapy and Inner Arch Support on Plantar Lower Body Alignment and Gait

“…Feet were classified as normal if the measured value was -2° or more, or 2° or less, narrow if the angle was 3° or more, and flat if the value was -3° or less (Song et al, 1996;Valmassy, 1996;Kim, 2013). To reduce the error between researchers, the same researcher measured the RCSP of the subject's right foot repeatedly three times for either the wearing of the basic sock (S1) or the test sock (S2).…”