Differences in activities of the lower extremity muscles with and without heel contact during stair ascent by young women wearing high-heeled shoes.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to identify any differences in the activity patterns of lower extremity muscles with and without heel contact during stair ascent by women in their twenties wearing high-heeled shoes.


METHODS
Twenty healthy female subjects wearing high-heeled shoes walked up a step with a height of 20 cm with and without heel contact, during which the activities of the vastus medialis oblique, vastus lateralis, and gastrocnemius were recorded using surface electromyography.


RESULTS
During stair ascent the activities of the vastus lateralis and vastus medialis oblique were significantly higher and that of the gastrocnemius significantly lower with high-heel contact than without high-heel contact.


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that young women wearing high-heeled shoes should step up with heel contact on the stair surface during stair ascent to activate the quadriceps muscle.
Yoon
Ji-Yeon
JY
Department of Physical Therapy, The Graduate School, Inje University, Kimhae, Gyeongsangnam-do, Republic of Korea.
An
Duk-Hyun
DH
Yoo
Won-Gyu
WG
Kwon
Yu-Ri
YR
D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006365:Heel / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D035002:Lower Extremity / Q000502:physiology; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D011336:Probability; D052097:Quadriceps Muscle / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012775:Shoes; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*; D016474:Weight-Bearing; D055815:Young Adult