The effects of gait speeds on the EMG activity of the lower limb muscles in the elderly during walking on the treadmill
Poster Presentation
Paper ID : 1614-12THCONG
Oral / Poster Presentation File: 1614-12THCONG.JPG
Authors
1motor behavior department, sport psychology
2motor behavior department, faculty of sport
3department of motor behavior, faculty of sport
Abstract
Walking exercise with the aims of balance improvement, reducing falling risk and promoting active life style has been recommended in the elderly. The change in gait speed can be regarded as one of the key components in walking exercise. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of different gait speeds on the EMG activity of the lower limb muscles in the elderly.
twelve elderly male subjects (age: 61.8 ±3.9 years old, height: 167.9±5.1cm and weight: 75.1±11.47kg) participated in this study voluntarily. The electrical activity of tibialis anterior (TA), rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles were recorded using an EMG-USB2+ multichannel system (Bioelettronica Italy) with sampling frequency of 1000 Hz and bipolar surface electrodes. After subjects preparation, we asked subjects to walk on the treadmill with three different speeds of slow (1.5), normal (3.5) and fast (5.5). Using OT BioLab software the signals were filtered with band pass filter of 10-350 Hz and notch filter of 50 Hz. For the normalization of signals, the MVC method was used. The data was processed using SPSS software and repeated measure analysis of variance with significance level of 0.05.
showed that in elderly subjects the RF muscle has lower muscle activity than TA muscle during walking (p=0.002). For all tested muscles, the EMG activity increased as walking speed increased (0.014). By increasing the walking speed, the increment of TA muscle activity was significantly greater than two other muscles (p=0.03).
walking speed is associated with higher muscle activity in the elderly. The effect of walking speed on the EMG activity of TA muscle was more obvious. Because of more muscle activity of weight bearing muscles during fast walking, it can improve muscle strength and gait efficiency in the elderly and reduce falling risk in these subjects.
twelve elderly male subjects (age: 61.8 ±3.9 years old, height: 167.9±5.1cm and weight: 75.1±11.47kg) participated in this study voluntarily. The electrical activity of tibialis anterior (TA), rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles were recorded using an EMG-USB2+ multichannel system (Bioelettronica Italy) with sampling frequency of 1000 Hz and bipolar surface electrodes. After subjects preparation, we asked subjects to walk on the treadmill with three different speeds of slow (1.5), normal (3.5) and fast (5.5). Using OT BioLab software the signals were filtered with band pass filter of 10-350 Hz and notch filter of 50 Hz. For the normalization of signals, the MVC method was used. The data was processed using SPSS software and repeated measure analysis of variance with significance level of 0.05.
showed that in elderly subjects the RF muscle has lower muscle activity than TA muscle during walking (p=0.002). For all tested muscles, the EMG activity increased as walking speed increased (0.014). By increasing the walking speed, the increment of TA muscle activity was significantly greater than two other muscles (p=0.03).
walking speed is associated with higher muscle activity in the elderly. The effect of walking speed on the EMG activity of TA muscle was more obvious. Because of more muscle activity of weight bearing muscles during fast walking, it can improve muscle strength and gait efficiency in the elderly and reduce falling risk in these subjects.
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