Rahman et al. / Malaysian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Special Issue on Medical Device and Technology (2017) 495-500 495 Comparison of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles activation on balance training devices and hoverboard Khairiyah Abdul Rahman a , Aizreena Azaman a,c , Hadafi Fitri Mohd Latip b,c , Mohd Azuwan Mat Dzahir d , and Malarvili Balakrishnan a a Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering, Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia b Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia c Sport Innovation Technology Center ,Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor, Malaysia d Deparment of Applied Mechanics and Design, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia * Corresponding author: aizreena@biomedical.utm.my Article history Received 15 October 2017 Accepted 6 December 2017 Abstract Balance training devices such as wobble board, basu ball and balance cushion are the tool used in balance training exercise programme in order to improve muscle strength and restore posture balance due degeneration of body function or injury. Recently, self-balancing scooter such as Segway and hover board showed a positive effects on rehabilitation. However, it is less known how these devices affect muscle physiological properties. This study aims to measure ankle muscles activation on difference balance training devices and hover board. In addition, a comparison between these device will be done in order to identify if hover board has a promising feature to be an alternative balance training device. In this research, surface EMG (sEMG) was used to record tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscle activities. Seventeen healthy subjects were required to stand on three different types of balance training device such as wobble board, balance cushion, bosu ball and a hover board. They were asked to maintain their standing position on each devices for two minutes. Both time domain and frequency domain analysis were used to identify the features of the EMG signal. Time domain analysis measurement involved average rectified value (ARV) and root mean square (RMS), meanwhile for frequency domain, median frequency (MDF) of the signal were measured. The results shows that, the RMS is differed significantly between the balance training devices (p<0.05) for tibialis anterior muscle but not gastrocnemius muscle. Meanwhile, no significant difference between the devices in the ARV and the MDF value (p>0.05). Besides, it was observed that less stable devices have increased muscle activity were observed. There is not much difference between hover board and the other devices in term of physiological effects of both tibialis anterior and gastrochemious muscle. It is also suggested that hover board offers a promising feature to be an alternative device for balance training device. Keywords: Muscle activity, electromyography, balance training device © 2017 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved INTRODUCTION Balance abiliy is an intrinsic ability of a person to maintain, attain and return of balance. This ability is depends on individual’s sensory and motor system. A proper spatial and posture orientation also effect individual’s balance ability (Azaman & Yamamoto, 2014). Balance ability affected by deterioration of vision, vestibular and somatosensory inputs that may caused by ageing, injuries and diseases such as stroke an ankle injury. Besides, it also affected by weakened muscle strength. There are few devices that commonly use for balance training and therapy such as wobble board, passive robotic wobble board, basu ball and balance cushion (Latip, Omar, Shahrom, Azmi, & Ridhwan, 2015; Wolburg, Rapp, Rieger, & Horstmann, 2016). These devices are normally presrcibe by a physician based on type and severity of injuries or disease. In general, these device function to create inbalance condition to patient. The patient will initiate balance control movement to maintain any particular position and thus, triggers muscles activation and modulate range of motion (ROM) at a particular joint. According to previous research, ankle joint and muscles such as gastrochemious and tibilis anterior play an important role as a terminal struture of the lower limb that contribute to movement as well as stability. Furthermore, it was reported that each of these muscle will trigger at a particular movement. The gastrocnemious muscles will be activated to keep balance if there is sway in posterior direction of the body the meanwhile the tibialis anterior muscle will be stimulated when there is a sway towards anterior direction of the body(Lee, Yoon, Kim, Kim, & Kim, 2012; Yoon, 2017). However, it is less known how the available devices differ from each other especially interm of physiological aspects. Wobble board was reported able to improve stability and avoid ankle injuries. In previous research, lower limb muscles activities during standing on different type of wobble board such as Jacobs, Freeman, and Lateral were compared (Cimadoro, Paizis, Alberti, & Babault, 2013). The RESEARCH ARTICLE