The influence of isometric hip adduction on quadriceps femoris activity

In the treatment of muscle imbalances around the knee, hip adduction and the contraction of adductor magnus have been used to facilitate vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) to a greater extent than vastus lateralis (VL). This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of this technique. Hip adduction was superimposed onto the contraction of quadriceps femoris in a weight bearing (WB) and a non-weight bearing (NWB) position at three levels of hip adduction force. The muscle activity of VMO and VL was recorded using electromyography with the ratio of the recordings of VMO to VL used for comparison. The activity of VMO compared with VL was greater in WB than NWB without hip adduction. VMO activity increased relatively more than VL with the addition of each level of hip adduction in WB and only with maximal hip adduction in NWB. The results provide support for the use of this technique.