Highlights
- •Sitting is an increasingly common activity in modern daily life.
- •Different sitting postures significantly affect muscle activity in the quadriceps.
- •Each component of the quadriceps was affected differently.
- •Cross-sitting was associated with knee pain and patellofemoral pain syndrome.
- •Patients with knee pain should avoid cross-legged sitting.
Abstract
Background
Prolonged sitting with high knee flexion is a common activity that may affect patellofemoral
joint compression and quadriceps length. Exploring the quadriceps activation after
sitting may help to explain the mechanism underlying muscle changes and the resulting
patellofemoral pain.
Objectives
To examine changes in quadriceps activity after prolonged sitting in cross-legged
sitting, side-sitting, and sitting on a chair.
Design
Laboratory observational study.
Method
Thirty healthy women participated and were randomly allocated to three groups of different
sitting positions (n = 10/group). Electromyography (EMG) of the vastus medialis (VM),
rectus femoris (RF), and vastus lateralis (VL) was performed before and after 15 min
after sitting. EMG was conducted during step-up and step-down tests and was reported
as %MVIC. The results were analysed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Kruskal-Wallis
ANOVA.
Results
VM activity and EMG activity during the step-down test after sitting increased significantly
in the cross-legged group (p = 0.01). Sitting postures significantly influenced (p = 0.02)
muscle activity changes in the VL and VM during the step-up test. Pairwise comparisons
revealed significant differences between the cross-legged sitting and sitting on a
chair groups.
Conclusions
Prolonged cross-legged sitting and side-sitting caused changes in VM and VL activity
during step tasks in healthy young women. After cross-legged sitting, the VM exhibited
a significantly higher activity in descending control, and changes in VM and VL activity
increased significantly during the step-up task. Increased VM and VL activation possibly
controls the patellofemoral joint. Therefore, they may fatigue more easily when many
step tasks or squatting exercises are performed.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 01, 2022
Accepted:
May 9,
2022
Received in revised form:
April 2,
2022
Received:
September 20,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.