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Abstract. [Purpose] This study investigated the activity of the rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris (BF), tibialis anterior (TA) and gastrocnemius (Gas) muscles of healthy subjects during salat and specific exercises using surface electromyography (EMG).[Methods] A group of undergraduates aged between 19 to 25 years voluntarily participated in this study. For the assessment of the RF muscle, the subjects were asked to perform salat movement [standing to prostration (STP)] and squat exercise (SE) and for the BF, TA and Gas muscles, subjects were asked to perform salat (bowing) and the toe touching exercise (TTE). The electromyograms of the muscles were recorded and analyzed.[Result] The findings indicate that there were contractions of the muscles during the salat and exercises with difference EMG levels. Wilcoxon's Rank Sum Test found a statistically no significant differences between salat and the specific exercises for RF, BF and Gas. For TA, the test revealed a statistically significant difference between salat and the specific exercise with a difference of 5.67%MVC.[Conclusion] Salat may be useful in warm up or in rehabilitation programs. This pilot study conducted initial research into the biomechanical responses of human muscles in various positions of salat.

Muscle fatigue is a decline in muscle maximum force during contraction and can influence the fall risk among people. This study is aimed at identifying the effect of fatigue on prospective fall risk in transfemoral amputees (TFA). Fourteen subjects were involved in this study with TFA ( 34.7 ± 8.1  yrs, n = 7 ) and normal subjects ( 31.1 ± 7.4  yrs, n = 7 ). Fatigue of lower limb muscles was induced with the fatigue protocol. Subjects were tested prefatigue and postfatigue using the standardized fall risk assessment. All results were calculated and compared between pre- and postfatigue to identify fatigue’s effect on both groups of subjects. The results showed that the fall risk increased significantly during pre- and postfatigue for TFA ( p = 0.018 ), while there were no significant differences in normal subjects ( p = 0.149 ). Meanwhile, the fall risk between TFA and normal subjects for prefatigue ( p = 0.082 ) and postfatigue ( p = 0.084 ) also showed no significant differences. The percentage (%) of increased fall risk for TFA was 19.2% compared to normal subjects only 16.7%. However, 61.4% increased of % fall risk in TFA after fatigue by using the baseline of the normal subject as the normalized % of fall risk. The increasing fall risks for TFA after fatigue are three times higher than the potential fall risk in normal subjects. The result indicates that they need to perform more precautions while prolonging lower limb activities. These results showed the implications of fatigue that can increase the fall risk due to muscle fatigue from repetitive and prolonged activities. Therefore, rehabilitation programs can be done very safely and precisely so that therapists can pursue fitness without aggravating existing injuries.

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