Characterization of Kinematics and Electromyography During Lunges Execution to Assess Knee Performance in Healthy Subjects

The knee joint is essential for stability, postural support and as a shock absorber of the body weight when carrying out bipedal physical activity. The lunge exercise is a functional test to evaluate the knee performance, therefore, applying a quantitative evaluation through kinematics and electromyography during lunge execution in non-trained healthy subjects will contribute to establish normative values in males and females for future comparison with diverse knee injuries. The aim of this study was to characterize electromyography parameters and kinematics of the knee while performing lunges bilaterally in healthy non-trained subjects (n = 70). A statistical difference between Right Leg vs, Left Leg for RMS, AUC and and MNF was found for the pooled data, and between male vs. female just for RMS. The range of movement did not differ significantly between legs or sexes. These results will be used to establish a database in healthy subjects that can be used to compare results vs. subjects with a knee injury.