Effect of the shoe heel height on lower-limb muscle activity

Women often wear high-heeled shoes to make their feet look slender and tall. We focused on the muscle activity of the lower limbs and investigated how the presence or absence of shoes and the change in heel height affect the lower-limb muscles. The participants were eight women in their twenties, and the lower-limb muscle activity was measured while the participants wore running/low-heeled/high-heeled shoes. The surface myoelectric potential was measured for eight muscles around the knee/waist using a multi-channel telemeter as the participants walked on a treadmill. The root-mean-square myoelectric potential and thus muscle activity were significantly higher for bare feet than for wearing shoes. Additionally, there was no significant difference in muscle activity between low-heeled and high-heeled shoes, but the activity was less for these shoes than for running shoes. Thus, as the heel height in-creased, the muscle activity around the knee decreased whereas that around the lumbar spine increased.