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Vastus medialis activation during knee extension exercises: evidence for exercise prescription
Lori A Bolgla1, Scott W Shaffer, Terry R Malone
1Medical College of Georgia, Dept of Phys Therapy, Augusta, GA, USA. LBolgla@mail.mcg.edu
Context:
Knee extension exercise is an important part of knee rehabilitation. Clinicians prescribe non-weight bearing exercise initially and progress patients to weight bearing exercise once they can perform a straight leg raise (SLR).
Objective:
Compare VM activation during a SLR and weight bearing exercises.
Design:
One-way repeated measures design.
Setting:
University Laboratory.
Subjects:
Fifteen healthy subjects.
Intervention:
One SLR exercise and 6 weight-bearing knee extension exercises.
Main Outcome Measures:
Electromyographic amplitudes for the VM expressed as a percent maximum voluntary isometric contraction.
Results:
The SLR had greater activation than the single leg stance and bilateral squat exercises. The step-up and unilateral leg press exercises had the greatest activation.
Conclusions:
SLR performance can be an important indicator for exercise progression. These results provide foundational knowledge to assist clinicians with exercise prescription.
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