Influence of Different Hardness Custom Foot Insoles in the Electromyography Activity Patterns of the Thigh and Hip Muscles during Motorcycling Sport: A Crossover Study

Abstract

Nowadays, the use of insoles in sport practice have been recognized to decrease the foot and lower limb injury patterns. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of four types of hardness insoles (HI) in the activity patterns of the hip and thigh muscles (HTM) in motoriders during motorcycling sport. The study was a crossover trial. Subjects were elite motoriders. The mean age was 33 ± 5.14 years. Electromyography (EMG) of hip and thigh muscles (HTM) data was registered via surface while subjects were riding on an elite motorcycle simulator. Subjects had to complete different tests with randomly hardest insoles (HI): 1: only polypropylene (58° D Shore); 2: Polypropylene (58° D Shore) with selective aluminium in hallux and metatarsal heads (60 HB Brinell hardness); 3: Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) (52° A Shore); and finally, 4: Ordinary EVA (25° A Shore) as the control. EMG patterns of the HTM, riding on an elite motorcycle simulator, showed the lowest peak amplitude with the insoles with polypropylene and selective aluminium. Using the hardest insoles in our study (selective aluminium) the EMG amplitude peaks decreased in all HTM.

Effectiveness of Custom Foot Insoles to Decrease Plantar Pressure: A Cross-over Randomized Trial Study

“…The reported differences support the SEM and MDC, and, thus, were secondary to the use of the proposed insole. These findings were in line with prior studies of our research group, indicating that the use of harder insoles decreased plantar pressures to perform motorcycling [ 8 , 9 , 10 ].…”

“…A limitation in our study is the type of design, where the inclusion of a control group that would improve the findings of this research. Another limitation is associated with influence in plantar pressure and surface plantar area using harder insoles than EVA, such as polypropylene and polypropylene with aluminum in metatarsal heads, employed in previous research [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Additional studies could include this harder insole and would be interesting for future work into the effect of aluminum in metatarsal heads.…”

“…Scientific literature has shown the influence of different hardness of insoles in the plantar pressure distribution in the motorcycle feet, concluding that the use of hard insoles with aluminum in metatarsal heads decreases forefoot plantar pressure and is more comfortable [ 8 ]. On the other hand, recent scientific studies about moto rider musculoskeletal activity in lower limbs and riding on an elite Supersport moto simulator concluded that the use of harder insoles decreased the electromyographic peak activity patterns in all the thigh and hip muscle and all the lower limb muscle except the fibularis longus, due to contact of the knee with the ground in the curve step [ 9 , 10 ].…”