Abstract
Limited research exists in the literature regarding the biomechanics of the jump-landing sequence in individuals that experience symptoms of muscle damage. The present study investigated the effects of knee localized muscle damage on sagittal plane landing biomechanics during drop vertical jump (DVJ). Thirteen regional level athletes performed five sets of 15 maximal eccentric voluntary contractions of the knee extensors of both legs at 60°/s. Pelvic and lower body kinematics and kinetics were measured pre- and 48 h post-eccentric exercise. The examination of muscle damage indicators included isometric torque, muscle soreness, and serum creatine kinase (CK) activity. The results revealed that all indicators changed significantly following eccentric exercise (p < 0.05). Peak knee and hip joint flexion as well as peak anterior pelvic tilt significantly increased, whereas vertical ground reaction force (GRF), internal knee extension moment, and knee joint stiffness significantly decreased during landing (p < 0.05). Therefore, the participants displayed a softer landing pattern following knee-localized eccentric exercise while being in a muscle-damaged state. This observation provides new insights on how the DVJ landing kinematics and kinetics alter to compensate the impaired function of the knee extensors following exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) and residual muscle soreness 48 h post-exercise.
Highlights
Following the exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) protocol, a significant decrease was found in isometric peak torque, whilst a significant increase was identified in creatine kinase (CK) activity and delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) at all time points post-exercise (p < 0.05)
Task was adopted in the present study given that it is consistently used by strength and conditioning practitioners in plyometric training involving the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) and it is commonly employed in clinical settings to assess and screen injury risk during landing [10,37]
The present study provides new insights on how the landing kinematics and kinetics change during drop vertical jump (DVJ) to compensate the impaired function of the knee extensors following
Summary
ACL tears can be financially detrimental due to required reconstruction and rehabilitation and can affect the quality of life of otherwise healthy individuals [2]. In this regard, previous research has shown extensive interest on the effects of several factors such as type of sport, age, gender, fatigue, and previous injury [3,4,5,6,7] on specific biomechanical parameters while performing jump-landing activities, with a number of studies investigating their relation to potential injury risk [5,7,8,9,10]
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