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A comparison of methods to determine bilateral asymmetries in vertical leg stiffness

  • Sean Maloney
    ,
  • Iain Fletcher
    ,
  • Jo Richards
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Whilst the measurement and quantification of vertical leg stiffness (Kvert) asymmetry is of important practical relevance to athletic performance, literature investigating bilateral asymmetry in Kvert is limited. Moreover, how the type of task used to assess Kvert may affect the expression of asymmetry has not been properly determined. Twelve healthy males performed three types of performance task on a dual force plate system to determine Kvert asymmetries; the tasks were: a) bilateral hopping, b) bilateral drop jumping, and c) unilateral drop jumping. Across all three methods, Kvert was significantly different between compliant and stiff limbs (P < 0.001) with a significant interaction effect between limb and method (P = 0.005). Differences in Kvert between compliant and stiff limbs were -5.3% (P < 0.001), -21.8% (P = 0.007) and -15.1% (P < 0.001) for the bilateral hopping, bilateral drop jumping and unilateral drop jumping methods respectively. All three methods were able to detect significant differences between compliant and stiff limbs, and could be used as a diagnostic tool to assess Kvert asymmetry. Drop jumping tasks detected larger Kvert asymmetries than hopping, suggesting that asymmetries may be expressed to a greater extent in acyclic, maximal performance tasks.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 829-835

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Journal of Sports Sciences (Volume 34, Issue 9)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 31/07/2015

Publication status

Published - 31/07/2015

ISSN

0264-0414

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/623203
  • Scopus: 84958109094

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