Barefoot vs shod walking and jogging on the electromyographic activity of the medial and lateral gastrocnemius

  1. Ferri-Caruana, Ana 1
  2. Cardera-Porta, Elena
  3. Gene-Morales, Javier
  4. Saez-Berlanga, Angel
  5. Jiménez-Martínez, Pablo
  6. Juesas, Alvaro
  7. Colado, Juan C. 1
  1. 1 Universitat de València
    info
    Universitat de València

    Valencia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/043nxc105

    Geographic location of the organization Universitat de València
Journal:
Journal of Biomechanics

ISSN: 0021-9290

Year of publication: 2024

Volume: 176

Pages: 112371

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1016/J.JBIOMECH.2024.112371 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor HANDLE: https://hdl.handle.net/10550/102826

More publications in: Journal of Biomechanics

RODERIC. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat de Valéncia: lock_openOpen access Handle

Abstract

Gastrocnemius weakness is associated with Achilles tendinopathies and muscle strains, with the medial gastrocnemius (MG) more commonly injured than the lateral gastrocnemius (LG). Walking and jogging are common in daily activities and sports, and biomechanical differences between shod and barefoot exercise may influence MG and LG activation. Understanding these activation patterns could help optimize training programs for injury prevention and/or rehabilitation. The aim was to compare MG and LG electromyographic activity during walking and jogging, both shod and barefoot. Twenty-nine participants (25.28 ± 4.53 years, 171.31 ± 0.76 cm, 72.68 ± 6.36 kg) completed a warm-up followed by 1 min of walking (80–99 steps/min) and jogging (130–150 steps/min) in both conditions (barefoot and shod, random order). Electromyographic signals were recorded using wearable devices (mDurance Solutions S.L., Granada, Spain; 1024 Hz sampling rate). We measured the root-mean-square (RMS) amplitudes for an entire stride cycle and digitally filtered the signals. For analysis, we normalized electromyographic values to the average peak values obtained during two sprints. We analyzed differences with a repeated-measures analysis of variance. Significant effects of condition (barefoot-shod) and gastrocnemius (MG-LG) were observed (all p ≤ 0.023, ƞp2 = 0.17–0.39), with higher MG activation compared to LG in the barefoot conditions (p = 0.004–0.027, d = 0.72–0.83), and nonsignificant differences between muscles in the shod conditions (p > 0.05). Shod exercise compared to barefoot resulted in lower MG activation (p = 0.001–0.003, d = 0.62–0.63) and non-significant differences in LG activation. These results indicate that barefoot walking and jogging increase MG activation compared to shod conditions, with no differences in LG activation. Additionally, footwear reduces differences between MG and LG.

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