Analysis of Lower Limb Muscle Activities during Walking and Jogging at Different Speeds

Walking, jogging, and running are performed widely during our daily life. This study aimed to analyze lower limb muscle activities of these tasks while participants are performing these activities at different speeds. The surface electromyography (sEMG) was applied on two consecutive days to measure muscle activities from ten healthy participants using rectus femoris, vastus medialis, tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius lateralis, biceps femoris, and semitendinosus muscles, as they are the main contributors of walking, jogging, and running. Both time-domain (RMS) and frequency-domain (median frequency) features were extracted for analysis. Results showed extreme activity of some muscles in certain tasks. During slow jogging, a majority of the muscles showed higher activities than other tasks. Regarding median frequency, it showed an inter-day difference in all tasks, which most of the muscles had lower median frequency in the second day than the first day. From this study, we conclude that slow jogging would pose greater burden on lower limb muscle than other tasks.