Effects of natural walking on human plantar pressure and surface electromyography of lower extremities / 国际生物医学工程杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effects of natural walking on human plantar pressure and surface electromyogrphy (sEMG) of lower limbs.Methods 28 healthy male volunteers were enrolled,and their plantar pressure and surface electromyogrphy related parameters were measured before and after 30 min natural walking.These parameters not only include plantar peak pressure and peak impulse,but also include time domain parameter (integral electromyogrphy,iEMG) and frequency domain parameter (mean power frequency,MPF) of tibial anterior muscle,gastrocnemius,femoral rectus,and biceps femoris muscle.The correlations between peak pressure and height as well as weight were analyzed.Results The feature parameters showed significant difference between left and right foot before and after 30 min natural walking (all P＜0.05).The differences of peak pressure and peak impulse values between left and right limb were found in different plantar areas.In the metatarsal areas M3,M4 and M5,the pressure parameters of left side were larger than those of right side (all P＜0.05).The values of iEMG and sEMG of left limb were larger than those of right side in tibialis anterior,gastrocnemius,rectus femoris and biceps femoris (all P＜ 0.05).The MPF values of sEMG of left limb were larger than those of right side in tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius (all P＜0.05).After 30 min natural walking,the peak pressures in right toe2-5 areas were decreased (all P＜0.05),the differences of iEMG of sEMG in all muscles were not significantly,and the MPF value of sEMG in left rectus femoris was decreased.Weak correlations were observed between peak pressure and height as well as weight.Conclusions The differences of left and right lower limbs were found in plantar pressure and sEMG values during natural walking.The results showed that 30 min natural walking did not cause significant stress-related fatigue in plantar areas.Therefore,the stability of gait can be maintained for a 30 min natural walking.However,that may lead to fatigue of the femoris rectus in the left limb.