Comparison of joint angles and electromyographic activity of the lower extremities during standing with wearing standard and revised high-heeled shoes: A pilot study

Abstract

Abstract. Revised high-heeled shoes (HHSs) were designed to improve the shortcomings of standard HHSs. This study was conducted to compare revised and standard HHSs with regard to joint angles and electromyographic (EMG) activity of the lower extremities during standing. The participants were five healthy young women. Data regarding joint angles and EMG activity of the lower extremities were obtained under three conditions: barefoot, when wearing revised HHSs, and when wearing standard HHSs. Lower extremity joint angles in the three dimensional plane were confirmed using a VICON motion capture system. EMG activity of the lower extremities was measured using active bipolar surface EMG. Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance by rank applied to analyze differences during three standing conditions. Compared with the barefoot condition, the standard HHSs condition was more different than the revised HHSs condition with regard to lower extremity joint angles during standing. EMG activity of the lower extremities was different for the revised HHSs condition, but the differences among the three conditions were not significant. Wearing revised HHSs may positively impact joint angles and EMG activity of the lower extremities by improving body alignment while standing.

Prolong Wearing of High Heeled Shoes Can Cause Low Back Pain

“…High heeled shoes also affect the electromyographic activity of lower extremities muscles. In revised high heeled shoes wearing study, they concluded that revised heeled shoes improve the EMG activity of lower limbs muscles and keep the body in normal alignment [11]. Long time wearing of high heeled shoes produces changes in the distribution of body weight on feet, more weight bearing on frontal part of foot [12].…”