A comparison in the muscle activity of the abductor hallucis and the medial longitudinal arch angle during toe curl and short foot exercises.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the muscle activity of the abductor hallucis (AbdH) and the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) angle during toe curl (TC) and short foot (SF) exercises while sitting or in one-leg standing position.


METHODS
Two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was used to analyze the effects of exercise type and position on the muscle activity of the AbdH and the MLA angle.


METHODS
Twenty subjects with normal feet participated in this study.


METHODS
The muscle activity of the AbdH and the MLA angle were measured during TC and SF exercises while sitting or in one-leg standing position.


RESULTS
The EMG activity of AbdH in SF exercise was significantly greater than during TC exercise in both exercise postural positions (p < 0.001). During the SF exercise, the EMG activity of the AbdH in the one-leg standing position was significantly higher than that while sitting (p < 0.001). The MLA angle in SF exercise was significantly smaller than during TC exercise in both postural positions (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that SF exercise is a more useful strengthening exercise than TC exercise in activating the AbdH muscle.
Department of Prosthetics and Orthotics, College of Suncheon First, Suncheon, Republic of Korea.
Do-Young
DY
Jung
Moon-Hwan
MH
Kim
Eun-Kyung
EK
Koh
Oh-Yun
OY
Kwon
Heon-Seock
HS
Cynn
Won-Hwee
WH
Lee
D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D011403:Pronation / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014034:Toes / Q000502:physiology*; D014743:Videotape Recording