2024 Volume 31 Issue 1 Pages 59-65
Strength training of the intrinsic foot muscles has the potential to prevent sports injuries and the risk of falls in the elderly, but due to its high degree of difficulty, there is a need to develop a simple training method. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and possible muscle hypertrophy effects of combined neuromuscular electrical stimulation and eccentric contraction (NMES+ECC) on intrinsic foot muscles. Twenty-six healthy adults were randomly assigned to the NMES+ECC group or the control group, and the NMES+ECC group was trained for 15 minutes, control group was waited in a sitting position and changes in muscle thickness were evaluated by ultrasound imaging (p＜0.05). The NMES+ECC group showed a 7% increase in muscle thickness after training, and the effect lasted for 10 minutes (p＜0.05). The control group showed no change in muscle thickness. Adverse training events were mild and there were no dropouts. Muscle swelling immediately after training may correlate with muscle hypertrophy when training is continued, indicating that NMES+ECC can be expected to increase intrinsic muscle hypertrophy. Furthermore, the feasibility of NMES+ECC was shown to be good. Future studies should examine the feasibility, muscle hypertrophy, and effects on clinical outcomes in long-term clinical trials.
