The Study of Trunk Muscle Fatigue during Walking on a Treadmill---Asseeement and Training

Walking is a major daily activity, and is considered as one way for improving body fitness. The trunk muscles are the major ones to maintain the upright posture for continuing walking activity. Moreover, for the patients with low back dysfunction it is important issue to return back to functional daily activities with proper trunk endurance. However, it is unclear that the fatigue changes of trunk muscles along with continuing walking like on a treadmill for fitness training. The purpose of this proposal is aimed to investigate the temporal and speed effect on the trunk muscles during walking on a treadmill. The study is designed with repeated measures with two factors ANOVA. In the first year, there will be sixty adult healthy volunteers without back complaints (30 males and 30 females) aged from 20 to 65 years old recruited to participate this study and if one unable to complete the protocol by walking 20 minutes on the treadmill or unable to follow the instructions will be excluded from the this study. In the following year, the 30 subjects with low back pain will be recruited and 10 for each McKenzie categories. In the final year, there will be 30 subjects with low back pain recruited, 10 for each McKenzie categories for walking training on the treadmill to compare the fatigue profile of the trunk muscles with that of 10 controls without low back pain. On the trunk there are four pairs of electrodes and reflective markers on the side of the body to monitor the postural deviation. The median frequency of electromyography will be used to describe the fatigability of the trunk. There are three walking speed (2,4,6 km/hr) randomized assigned for each 20- minute walking trial respectively within three weeks to be completed. The data will be collected at every 5 minutes. It will be a three-year project executed for the assessment of trunk muscle fatigability in the participant with low back pain or not in the first two year, and in the third year it will see if a walking training on the treadmill , six 20-minute sessions with 4 km/hr affect the fatigability of the trunk muscles. The outcome will be measured before, after training, and follow up three weeks later. This project will be expected to provide a temporal profile of trunk muscle fatigability under varied speed conditions as a safe clinical guideline for fitness assessment and training.

Project ID:PC9807-0302
External Project ID:NSC98-2410-H182-022-MY2