The Effect of Foot Deformities on the Electrical Activity of Selected Lower Limb Muscles During Jumping and Landing

Document Type : Original research papers

Authors

1 The Organization for Educational Research and Planning, Tehran, Iran

2 Faculty of Humanities, University College of Omran_Toseeh,Hamedan, Iran

3 Faculty of Humanities, University College of Omran_Toseeh, Hamedan, Iran

4 Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Faculty of Educational Science and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran

10.22098/jast.2025.15090.1350

Abstract

Deformities of the foot are among the factors that affect the normal function of the foot in various movements and tasks. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of foot deformities on the electrical activity of selected lower limb muscles during jumping and landing activities. Forty-five participants were selected voluntarily. Based on the entry and exit criteria, the subjects were divided into groups of fifteen people, including normal feet, flat feet, and cave feet. The navicular drop index was used to divide the groups. The electrical activity of the muscles of the rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), semitendinosus (ST), and biceps femoris (BF) was measured during jumping and landing. A 30 cm-high jumping platform was used to perform the double-leg jump landing task. A one-way analysis of variance test was used to compare the data. A significance level of 0.05 was also considered. The results showed significant feedforward activity of the vastus latralis and rectus femoris muscles between normal, cave foot, and flat feet. Also, there was a significant difference between the feedback activity of the rectus femoris, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris muscles between the three groups of normal, cave, and flat feet. According to the results, cave foot and flat foot may be associated with altered activation patterns of knee stabilizers and increase the risk of injuries in the knees during double-leg jumping and landing.

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