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Yoshimura Y.1, Ono K.2, Osaka H.1, Ito T.1, Ise M.1
1Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare, Department of Rehabilitation, Kurashiki, Japan, 2Shigei Hospital, Department of Rehabilitation, Kurashiki, Japan
Background: Nordic walking (NW) has spread recently not only in European countries but in Japan as well, and its effects continue to be recognized. Although the use of NW has begun in several clinical settings in Japan, opinions remain divided on the muscle activity of the legs during walking, and there are no reports on trunk fluctuation during walking determined using trunk acceleration.
Purpose: Subjects' leg muscle activity and oxygen intake were measured and compared in normal walking and NW.
Methods: The subjects were 10 healthy adult men (20.6 ± 0.5 years old). Normal walking and NW were performed with a uniform walking cadence of 110 steps per minute. Subjects walked 10 m in each movement task, and trunk acceleration and leg muscle activity during that time were measured in three trials each. Muscle activity was measured by a surface electromyography. Activity in the rectus femoris, adductor magnus, tensor fasciae latae, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior, and lateral head of the gastrocnemius muscles was measured. The obtained electromyogram waveforms were processed with a 20-500 Hz bandpass filter, after which the integrated value from full-wave rectification was obtained. The integrated value from full-wave rectification for each muscle during walking was normalized with 100% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) (%MVC), and it was taken as an indicator of the amount of muscle activity. In the measurement of trunk acceleration, the acceleration waveform of one gait cycle was measured using a three-axis accelerometer. The mean values for %MVC and RMS were obtained and compared for normal walking and NW. Oxygen intake were measured.
Results: %MVC tended to increase in the rectus femoris and adductor magnus muscles during NW compared with normal walking. In contrast, %MVC tended to decrease in the tensor fasciae latae, tibialis anterior, and lateral head of the gastrocnemius muscles during NW compared with normal walking. RMS values from the accelerometer for normal walking and NW were: vertical component 2.4±0.4 and 2.7±0.6, respectively; lateral component 1.6±0.3 and 1.9±0.5, respectively; and anteroposterior component 2.2±0.3 and 2.1±0.5, respectively. And oxygen intake of NW were higher than normal walking.
Conclusion(s): With NW, there was stronger activity in the rectus femoris and adductor magnus muscles. This was caused by the shift of the center of gravity toward the pole side. This result suggests support by the hip adductors and knee extensors. NW could become one of the effective total exercise menu.
Implications: Clinicians should be aware of these effectiveness of NW. NW could be the better way to improve abilities of many patients all over the world.
Funding acknowledgements: This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP16K16473.
Topic: Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing
Ethics approval: Ethics Committee at Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare, November 2015.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
