The influence of a medio-lateral unstable sole on invertor and evertor activation while descending stairs

Abstract

[Purpose] This study examined the effects of a medio-lateral unstable sole on invertor and evertor activation while descending stairs. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were 30 university students with no history of ankle sprain. They descended stairs while wearing the medio-lateral unstable sole or with bare feet. Electromyography was used to record the activity of the tibialis anterior and peroneus longus and brevis muscles and paired t-tests were used to assess statistical significance. [Results] The medio-lateral unstable sole group showed increased tibialis anterior and peroneus longus and brevis muscle activation compared to the barefoot group. [Conclusion] Medio-lateral unstable sole can be used with exercises to prevent further ankle damage by activating both the inversion and eversion muscles.

Effect of a 4-week balance exercise with medio-lateral unstable sole on ankle joint functional ability

“…MLUS was developed for the average men’s shoe size (260 mm) and the average female shoe size (240 mm). The sole was manufactured at the height of 2 cm, breadth 3 cm 6 ) . Muscle activity was recorded with a multichannel electromyography Myotrace 400 (Noraxon Inc, Scottdale, AZ, USA) 25–450 Hz, by specifying the notch filter to 60 Hz and root-mean square (RMS) average interval to 300 mm.…”

“…Wearing Sandals with attached hemisphere-shaped soles are found to increase muscle activity around the ankle joint and improve antero-posterior stability during a variety of exercises 5 ) . In addition, Yang et al reported that descending stairs with medio-lateral unstable sole (MLUS; BTP company, Korea) in healthy subjects increased the activity of ankle evertors 6 ) . The MLUS was modified to stimulate more movement in the frontal plane (inversion and eversion).…”