Abstract
Field-based sports require athletes to run sub-maximally over significant distances, often while contending with dynamic perturbations to preferred coordination patterns. The ability to adapt movement to maintain performance under such perturbations appears to be trainable through exposure to task variability, which encourages movement variability. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which various wearable resistance loading magnitudes alter coordination and induce movement variability during running. To investigate this, 14 participants (three female and 11 male) performed 10 sub-maximal velocity shuttle runs with either no weight, 1%, 3%, or 5% of body weight attached to the lower limbs. Sagittal plane lower limb joint kinematics from one complete stride cycle in each run were assessed using functional data analysis techniques, both across the participant group and within-individuals. At the group-level, decreases in ankle plantarflexion following toe-off were evident in the 3% and 5% conditions, while increased knee flexion occurred during weight acceptance in the 5% condition compared with unloaded running. At the individual-level, between-run joint angle profiles varied, with six participants exhibiting increased joint angle variability in one or more loading conditions compared with unloaded running. Loading of 5% decreased between-run ankle joint variability among two individuals, likely in accordance with the need to manage increased system load or the novelty of the task. In terms of joint coordination, the most considerable alterations to coordination occurred in the 5% loading condition at the hip-knee joint pair, however, only a minority of participants exhibited this tendency. Coaches should prescribe wearable resistance individually to perturb preferred coordination patterns and encourage movement variability without loading to the extent that movement options become limited.
Highlights
Across many field-based sports, athletes must be capable of running long distances throughout a match [1,2,3]
This study aimed to describe the extent to which different acute lower limb wearable resistance (WR) loadings (1%, 3%, and 5% of body weight) alter coordination and induce movement variability during sub-maximal overground running
Loading of 5% of body weight resulted in greater knee flexion from 66–81% of the gait cycle (P < 0.001) and less ankle plantarflexion from 9–30% of the gait cycle compared with body weight only (BW) (P < 0.001)
Summary
Across many field-based sports, athletes must be capable of running long distances throughout a match [1,2,3]. Development of sub-maximal running performance for field-based athletes is a multifactorial proposition and requires training of aerobic capacity, biomechanical factors for superior economy, and muscular strength [5,6,7,8]. Coaches should address these factors in training prescription and, in addition, athletes’ ability to adapt their running coordination patterns in accordance with the dynamic constraints of the sport [9, 10]. In field-based sport, organismic constraints in the form of local metabolite accumulation from intermittent anaerobic efforts [14, 15], muscle damage arising from high force eccentric contractions during decelerations [16], and muscular contusion from compressive force impacts [17], all present scenarios in which there is a challenge to an athlete’s preferred running coordinative structure, which must be adapted to
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