The effect of the body type on the electrical activity of the abdominal muscles during gait

Introduction: Muscle performance could be influenced by physical features of the body. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the body type on the electrical activity of the abdominal muscles during gait. Martials and Methods: Heath Carter somatotype method was used to determine body type. The performance of rectus abdominis muscle (RA), internal oblique muscle (IO) and external oblique muscle (EO) were recorded. The mean and the standard deviation were used for description of the data and ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey were utilized for comparison between three body types at the significance level of P 0.05. Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference in the root mean square (RMS) of EO and IO and the average percentage of that is higher in ENDO in comparison with the other two types. Also, the duration of electrical activity (DEA) was only significant for the IO between the endomorphs (ENDO), the mesomorphs (MESO) and the ectomorphs (ECTO) and its mean was higher for the ENDO. Conclusion: According to the findings of the study, we could claim that the difference in the performance pattern of the muscles in the abdominal area during gait is influenced by body type.