The relationship between proximal and distal lower limb muscle activities with time to stabilization

Introduction: Postural control may be a key component in daily activities and sport exercises. Lower limb muscles have a critical role in to maintain postural stability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between proximal and distal lower limb muscles activities (gluteus medius, tibialis anterior) to reach stabilization time during single-leg jump-landing.Materials and Methods: Twenty male physical education students participated in this study. Subject’s muscles activities were evaluated and recorded via electromyography system. Time to stabilization was evaluated in anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions on force plate system while jump-landing task. In order to analyze the data, the Pearson correlation test at a significance level of 0.05 was used.Results: The results showed that there is no significant correlation between tibialis anterior muscle activity and time to stabilization in three directions (P > 0.05). Moreover, results identified no correlation between gluteus medius muscle activity and time to stabilization in anterior- posterior and overall directions (P > 0.05). However, significant correlation was found between gluteus medius muscle activity and time to stabilization in medial- lateral (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Our findings suggest that less gluteus medius activity may lead to poor performance of functional balance tasks. Therefore; hip abductor strengthening can be considered to improve medial-lateral postural control.