Journal article
Muscle activation profiles about the knee during Tai-Chi stepping movement compared to the normal gait step
Journal of electromyography and kinesiology, v 17(3), pp 372-380
2007
PMID: 16723260
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate knee muscle activity patterns in experienced Tai-Chi (TC) practitioners during normal walking and TC stepping. The electromyographic (EMG) activity of vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), bicep femoris (BF), and gastrocnemius (GS) muscles of 11 subjects (five females and six males) during the stance phase of normal walking was compared to stance phase of a TC step. Knee joint motion was also monitored by using an Optotrak™motion analysis system. Raw EMG was processed by root-mean-square (RMS) technique using a time constant of 50
ms, and normalized to maximum of voluntary contraction for each muscle, referred to as normalized RMS (nRMS). Peak nRMS and co-contraction (quantified by co-contraction index) during stance phase of a gait cycle and a TC step were calculated. Paired
t-tests were used to compare the difference for each muscle group peak and co-contraction pair between the tasks. The results showed that only peak values of nRMS in quadriceps and co-contraction were significantly greater in TC stepping compared to normal walking (Peak values of nRMS for VL were 26.93% for normal walking and 52.14% for TC step,
p
=
0.001; VM are 29.12% for normal walking and 51.93% for TC stepping,
p
=
0.028). Mean co-contraction index for VL–BF muscle pairs was 13.24
±
11.02% during TC stepping and 9.47
±
7.77% in stance phase of normal walking (
p
=
0.023). There was no significant difference in peak values of nRMS in the other two muscles during TC stepping compared to normal walking. Preliminary EMG profiles in this study demonstrated that experienced TC practitioners used relatively higher levels of knee muscle activation patterns with greater co-contraction during TC exercise compared to normal walking.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Muscle activation profiles about the knee during Tai-Chi stepping movement compared to the normal gait step
- Creators
- Shih-Chiao Tseng - Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.Wei Liu - Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.Margaret Finley - Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USAKevin McQuade - University of Washington
- Publication Details
- Journal of electromyography and kinesiology, v 17(3), pp 372-380
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Drexel University; Physical Therapy (and Rehabilitation Sciences)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000246331400014
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-34047105174
- Other Identifier
- 991019520544704721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Neurosciences
- Physiology
- Rehabilitation
- Sport Sciences