Abstract
BackgroundAt the beginning of a sprint, the acceleration of the body center of mass (COM) is driven mostly forward and vertically in order to move from an initial crouched position to a more forward-leaning position. Individual muscle contributions to COM accelerations have not been previously studied in a sprint with induced acceleration analysis, nor have muscle contributions to the mediolateral COM accelerations received much attention. This study aimed to analyze major lower-limb muscle contributions to the body COM in the three global planes during the first step of a sprint start. We also investigated the influence of step width on muscle contributions in both naturally wide sprint starts (natural trials) and in sprint starts in which the step width was restricted (narrow trials).MethodMotion data from four competitive sprinters (2 male and 2 female) were collected in their natural sprint style and in trials with a restricted step width. An induced acceleration analysis was performed to study the contribution from eight major lower limb muscles (soleus, gastrocnemius, rectus femoris, vasti, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, biceps femoris, and adductors) to acceleration of the body COM.ResultsIn natural trials, soleus was the main contributor to forward (propulsion) and vertical (support) COM acceleration and the three vasti (vastus intermedius, lateralis and medialis) were the main contributors to medial COM acceleration. In the narrow trials, soleus was still the major contributor to COM propulsion, though its contribution was considerably decreased. Likewise, the three vasti were still the main contributors to support and to medial COM acceleration, though their contribution was lower than in the natural trials. Overall, most muscle contributions to COM acceleration in the sagittal plane were reduced. At the joint level, muscles contributed overall more to COM support than to propulsion in the first step of sprinting. In the narrow trials, reduced COM propulsion and particularly support were observed compared to the natural trials.ConclusionThe natural wide steps provide a preferable body configuration to propel and support the COM in the sprint starts. No advantage in muscular contributions to support or propel the COM was found in narrower step widths.
Highlights
The best results in sprint running are achieved by developing high forward acceleration, reaching the maximal speed, and keeping that speed over the remainder of the run (Ross et al, 2001)
Peak forward and vertical ground reaction force (GRF) were lower in the narrow trials than in the natural trials, by approximately 0.20 times body weight (BW) in both directions
Peak rear-directed reaction force occurred at 3% of the stance phase, with the braking phase finishing at approximately 6% of the stance phase, similar in both trials even though the peak force was 0.07 times BW greater in the narrow trials
Summary
The best results in sprint running are achieved by developing high forward acceleration, reaching the maximal speed, and keeping that speed over the remainder of the run (Ross et al, 2001). In order to develop a great amount of forward acceleration, a large forward-directed GRF must be generated. Previous studies report that the largest forward-directed force (Rabita et al, 2015) and the greatest forward acceleration (Nagahara et al, 2019) were produced during the first stance phase of the sprint, i.e., the first step during the acceleration phase. At the beginning of a sprint, the acceleration of the body center of mass (COM) is driven mostly forward and vertically in order to move from an initial crouched position to a more forward-leaning position. This study aimed to analyze major lower-limb muscle contributions to the body COM in the three global planes during the first step of a sprint start. We investigated the influence of step width on muscle contributions in both naturally wide sprint starts (natural trials) and in sprint starts in which the step width was restricted (narrow trials)
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