Revista de medicina deportiva y estudios de dopaje

Background: Running is fundamental skill and requirement of all athletic activities. Therefore, there is a need to understand lower limb muscles function during running. This is also important for refining the existing knowledge regarding increased performance during sport activities.

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the muscle work of different groups of lower limb muscles during running at different speeds.

Method: In total 15 individuals were involved in the study. All of the subjects were made to run in a sports lab providing three good trials of each speed at their convenient slow, comfortable and fast running speeds. Data was gathered using Vicon®, EMG and Inverse dynamics tools and analyzed using SPSS® version 22 programme. Muscle force was calculated with inverse dynamic model using the kinetic and kinematic data of the trials collected from the participants.

Result: Hip flexors and knee extensors where found to have a major increase in muscle force when compared with slow to fast speeds while ankle flexors were found to show steady increase in their muscle force with increase in the speed. Similarly hip and knee angle showed a significant change in values while ankle angles did not change much during increasing speeds.

Significance: Our study implies the importance of the muscle groups of lower limb while changing pace during running. It is important for professional athletes recovering from an injury. They can concentrate on rehabilitation of individual muscle group required according to the speed their sport involves. Also, they can focus on the development of an individual muscle which is performing more significantly according to the speed their sport requires.