Comparison of Electromyographic Activity of Selected Lower Extremity Muscles During ‎Front and Right Lunge Movements Between Female Amateur and Professional ‎Badminton Players

It has been reprted that there are differences between amateur and professional players in terms of kinetics of movement and the amount of foot pressure during lunge movement. The aim of the present study was to investigate the electromyographic difference of selected lower limb muscles during lunge movement in two groups of amateur and professional individuals.

Ten amateur badminton players and 10 professional female badminton players were recruited based on convenience sampling method (professional group: age 18.06±0.99 years, height 165.2±5.45 cm and weight 57.5±2.79 kg and amateur group age 20.78±1.80 years, height 165.00±6.69 cm and weight 55.50±5.50 kg). The EMG (16 channel, Wireless, made by MYON, Switzerland) machine was used to record electrical activity of tibialis anterior, proneus longus, medial gastrocnemius, lateral gastrocnemius, vastus medialis, and vastus lateralis muscles. Subjects in both groups performed lunge movement and the values RMS of selected muscles were derived from EMG records at 100 ms before foot initial contact to force plate and 100-200 ms after that. Data analysis was performed by using independent t and Man-Whitney tests by setting significance level at P value less than 0.05.

In comparison with professional group, amateur group had lower values before initial contact the electrical activity of tibialis anterior muscle (P=0.006) and after initial contact the electrical activity of proneus longus (P=0.002) muscle. There was no significant differences among other muscle’s activities (P>0.005(.

By decreasing the activity of tibialis anterior muscle the before initial contact phase and decreasing the activity of the proneus longus muscle in the after initial contact phase of amateur badminton players, it can be stated that Amateur athletes are more susceptible to ankle sprains and need to design strenuous exercises.