BackgroundAnalysis of lower limb exercises is traditionally completed with four distinct methods (i) 3D motion capture; (ii) depth-camera based systems (iii) visual analysis from a qualified exercise professional; (iv) self-assessment. Each method is associated with a number of limitations.
ObjectiveThe aim of this systematic review is to synthesize and evaluate studies which have investigated the capacity for inertial measurement unit (IMU) technologies to assess movement quality in lower limb exercises.
Data SourcesA systematic review of PubMed, ScienceDirect and Scopus was conducted.
Study Eligibility CriteriaArticles written in English and published in the last 10 years which contained an IMU system for the analysis of repetition-based targeted lower limb exercises were included.
Study Appraisal and Synthesis MethodsThe quality of included studies was measured using an adapted version of the STROBE assessment criteria for cross-sectional studies. The studies were categorised in to three groupings: exercise detection, movement classification or measurement validation. Each study was then qualitatively summarised.
ResultsFrom the 2452 articles that were identified with the search strategies, 47 papers are included in this review.
ConclusionsWearable inertial sensor systems for analysing lower limb exercises are a rapidly growing technology. Research over the past ten years has predominantly focused on validating measurements that the systems produce and classifying users' exercise quality. There have been very few user evaluation studies and no clinical trials in this field to date.
Key PointsInertial measurement unit (IMU) systems have been extensively validated to successfully measure joint angle and temporal features during lower limb exercises.It is less understood if IMU systems can validly compute kinetic measures pertaining to lower limb exercises.IMU systems, which incorporate machine learning in to their data analysis pathways, have also been found to be effective in automated exercise detection and in classifying movement quality across a range of lower limb exercises.3