• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in movement strategies of lower limb joints depending on the type of heel during sit-to-stand. Methods: Twenty healthy females participated in this study. All subjects performed sit-to-stand three times each with three different types of heels - bare feet, 9 cm high-heeled shoes, and unstable shoes. Trails were conducted in random order. Three-dimensional motion analysis systems were used for collection and analysis of the kinematic data of lower limb movements. Results: Results of this study showed kinematic differences in pelvis, hip joints, knee joints, and ankle joints during sit-to-stand based on the type of heels. At the initial sit-to-stand, hip joint flexion, knee joint flexion, ankle joint flexion, and ankle joint inversion showed significant differences. The maximal angles of hip joint flexion, hip joint adduction, knee joint flexion, ankle joint flexion, and ankle joint inversion were significantly different, while hip joint adduction, pelvic forward tilt, hip joint rotation, knee joint flexion, ankle joint flexion, and ankle joint inversion differed significantly during the terminal of sit-to-stand. Conclusion: Therefore, the type of heel played an important role in selection of lower limb movements during sit-to-stand which were essential parts of daily life movements.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.723-729
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• 2012

Spring-like leg models have been employed to explain various dynamic characteristics in human walking. However, this leg stiffness model has limitations to represent complex motion of actual human gait, especially the behaviors of each lower limb joint. The purpose of this research was to determine changes of total leg stiffness and lower limb joint stiffness with gait speed in knee osteoarthritis. Joint stiffness defined as the ratio of the joint torque change to the angular displacement change. Eight subjects with knee osteoarthritis participated to this study. The subject walked on a 12 m long and 1 m wide walkway with three sets of four different randomly ordered gait speeds, ranging from their self-selected speed to maximum speed. Kinetic and kinematic data were measured using three force plates and an optical marker system, respectively. Joint torques of lower limb joints calculated by a multi-segment inverse dynamics model. Total leg and each lower limb joint had constant stiffness during single support phase. The leg and hip joint stiffness increased with gait speed. The correlation between knee joint angles and torques had significant changed by the degree of severity of knee osteoarthritis.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.111-119
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate muscle activity and gait pattern in lower limb depending on the outsole of heel rockers. Fifteen healthy men volunteered for this experiment. Each subject performed totally three trails with two pairs of different heel rocker shoes and a pair of normal running shoes at speed of 1.33m/s for 1 minute during walking on a treadmill. Kinematic data gathered in 100Hz was recorded and analyzed by using the 3D motion capture system to measure the trunk tilt and joint angle of the right lower limb. And the lower extremity muscle activities were simultaneously recorded in 1000Hz and assessed by using EMG. The statistical analysis was the one-way ANOVA with the repeated measures to compare among the three kinds of shoes. The level of statistical significance for all tests was 0.05. Joint angle of lower limb was showed statistically significant different in MST(hip joint), LHS(ankle joint), and RTO(knee and ankle joint). Muscle activity of rectus femoris and biceps femoris was statistically increased in both heel rocker shoes during gait cycle on treadmill. The maximum peak time of tibialis anterior in the negative heel rocker showed the delay of approximately 23.8%time than normal shoes. Gait pattern variability of the negative heel rocker was increased in the first half of the stance phase and the variability of the positive heel rocker was increased in the terminal stance phase. In Conclusion, stability was decreased in between joints of lower limb on positive heel rocker than negative heel rocker. This study found that there were different joint angle, muscle activity, gait pattern and coordinate system of the lower limb in each kind of shoes. These unstability affected the lower extremity and the whole body. A further study has to be continued with study of rehabilitation and exercise for a long-term.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.125-135
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• 1996

The purpose of this research is to measure range of virtual hip joint and lower limb joints motion such as the hip, knee and ankle joints for 47 young male students. The results of ANOVA revealed that anthropometric dimensions including weight and stature did not show any significant effects on the range of virtual hip joint and lower limb joints motion and the range of motion with two degrees of freedom at the shoulder, virtual hip and hip joints. Anthropometric dimensions such as age, weight, statuire, arm length, shoulder height and leg length were found to be lowly correlated with the range of virtual hip joint and lower limb joints motion. It is expected that the data on the range of joint motion suggested in this study can be used as a valuable input data when designing workplace, predicting human posture and reach volume, etc.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2022

Background: Bird dog exercise (BDE) is one of the lumbar stabilization exercises that rehabilitate low back pain by co-contraction of the local and global muscles. Previous studies have reported the effect of various type of BDEs (for example, practicing the exercises on various surfaces and changing the limb movement) for muscle co-contraction. Objects: This study aimed to investigate the effect of knee joint flexion position of the raised lower limb on abdominal and back muscle activity during BDE in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Methods: Thirteen males participated in this study (age: 32.54 ± 4.48 years, height: 177.38 ± 7.17 cm). Surface electromyographic (SEMG) data of the internal abdominal oblique (IO), external abdominal oblique (EO), lumbar multifidus (MF), and thoracic part of the iliocostalis lumborum (ICLT) were collected in two knee joint flexion positions (90° flexion versus 0° flexion) during BDE. The SEMG data were expressed as a percentage of root mean square mean values obtained in the maximal voluntary isometric contraction. Results: Greater muscle activity of the IO (p = 0.001), MF (p = 0.009), and ICLT (p = 0.021) of the raised lower limb side and the EO (p = 0.001) and MF (p = 0.009) of the contralateral side were demonstrated in the knee joint flexion position compared to the knee joint extension position. Greater local/global activity ratios of the abdominal muscle (i.e., IO and EO) of the raised lower limb (p = 0.002) and the back muscle (i.e., MF and ICLT) of the contralateral side (p = 0.028) were also noted in the knee joint flexion position. Conclusion: BDE with a knee joint flexion position might be recommended as an alternative lumbar stabilization exercise to enhance muscle activity in both the raised lower limb and the contralateral sides of the trunk for individuals with CLBP.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.93-104
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate lower-limb joint torque of the two groups as it changed by somatosensory stimulation during the descent down three stairs of different heights and to describe the difference between the two groups, which are young people group and elderly people group. Subjects of each groups climbed down a stair at four stimulation conditions, which are non-stimulation, tibialis anterior tendon stimulation, achilles tendon stimulation, tibialis anterior - achilles tendon stimulation. Motion capture data were collected using 3D optoelectric motion tracking system that utilizes active infrared LEDs, near infrared sensor and force plate. The obtained motion capture data was used to build 3D computer simulation model. The results show that lower-limb joint torque of the two groups changed with somatosensory stimulation as they descended the stairs and the joint torque of the two groups differed from each other.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.153-162
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• 2019

PURPOSE: This study compared ankle joint exercise and thigh exercise on the isometric strength of the lower limb and balance ability. METHODS: Twenty-seven subjects were divided into ankle joint exercise (AEG, n=9), tight exercise (TEG, n=9), and control group (CON, n=9). AEG and TEG performed ankle joint and tight exercises three times a week for four weeks. The following were measured before and four weeks after each exercise: isometric strength at knee flexion and extension of the lower limb; isometric strength at ankle plantar flexion and dorsiflexion of the lower limb; static balance of trace length and C90 area; and the dynamic forward, backward, leftward, and rightward balance for each region. RESULTS: The results showed that the isometric strength of plantar flexion (p<.05) was increased significantly in AEG compared to those in TEG and CON. The dynamic leftward (p<.05) and rightward balance (p<.05) were increased significantly in both AEG and TEG compared to that in CON. On the other hand, the static balance of the trace length and C90 area, isometric strength of ankle dorsiflexion, knee flexion and extension of the lower limb, and dynamic forward and backward balance did not show significant differences between the groups. CONCLUSION: Ankle joint exercise improves the isometric strength of plantar flexion compared to tight exercise.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.1421-1422
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• 2011

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.132-139
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of the height and insole height upon landing on the lower limb joint angle and muscle activity during maximum ground repulsion in young men. For a male in their twenties, a landing motion was performed with a force plate on a 40cm-high platform by wearing one of 0, 3, 5cm polyurethane insoles per week for a total of 3 weeks. During the landing motion, the joint angle of the lower extremities and the muscle activity of the rectus femoris, biceps femoris, anterior tibialis and calf muscles were measured during the maximum ground repulsion. In order to compare the changes in the joint angle and muscle activity of the lower limbs according to the height of the insole, a one-way ANOVA with repetitive factors was performed. As a result of the analysis of the lower limb joint angle, the higher the height of the insole affected the angle of the left ankle joint. As a result of the muscle activity analysis, the higher the height of the insole affected the right anterior tibialis muscle and biceps femoris. It is thought that it is possible to protect the body when landing through sufficient muscle strength increase of the lower limb muscles. As the angle of the affected muscle and lower limb joint may be different depending on the type of insole, it is considered necessary to study it.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.379-385
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare kinematics on lower limbs between stair walking with high heel and barefoot in healthy adult women. Methods: 18 healthy adult women were recruited in this study. The subjects performed stair ascent and descent with high heels and barefoot. The experiment was conducted in random order and repeated three times for each stair walking with high heels and barefoot. The movements of lower limb joints were measured and analyzed using a three-dimensional analysis system. Results: The ankle, knee, and hip flexion angles on the sagittal plane exhibited statistically significant differences between stair ascent and descent with high heels and barefoot. The pelvic forward tilt angles showed statistically significant differences only during stair ascent. The ankle inversion, hip abduction and pelvic lateral tilt angles on the frontal plane showed statistically significant differences between stair walking with high heels and barefoot. On the transverse plane, the hip rotation angles showed statistically significant differences between the high-heeled and barefoot gait during stair ascent and descent. However, the pelvic rotation angles showed no statistically significant differences. Conclusion: Therefore, wearing high-heeled shoes during stair walking in daily life is considered to influence lower limb kinematics due to the high heel, and thus poses the risks of pain, and low stability and joint damage caused by changes in the movement of lower limb joints.