Effect of Lower Limb Muscle Fatigue on Knee Joint Control Strategies during Landing in Young Men

Document Type : Original article

Authors

1 PhD student of Sport Biomechanics, Kharazmi University, Teheran, Iran

2 Full Professor of Sport Biomechanics, School of Physical Education, Kharazmi University of Tehran

3 Full Professor of Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Teheran, Iran

4 Assistant Professor of Sports Sciences Research Institute of Iran (SSRII), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background and Aim: Fatigue is thought to affect the anterior cruciate ligament injury risk; thus, the present study was conducted to investigate kinematics, kinetics, and active muscle control strategies of the knee joint in fatigue conditions during a landing task.
Materials and Methods: A total of 15 healthy active male individuals (age: 22.09± 3.18 years; height: 58/7 ± 177 cm; weight: 72/7 ± 71 kg) participated in the current quasi-experimental study. Sit to stand fatigue protocol was used for lower limb fatigue and kinematic and kinetic and muscle activity during normal gait before and after fatigue protocol were collected. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to ensure the normal distribution of data and paired t-test was run to compare variables at p≤0.05 level.
Results: Increased knee flexion velocities (P=0.004), increased knee flexion angle at initial foot contact (p=0.016), and peak knee flexion angle (p<0.02), decreased ground reaction force (p=0.001), increased time to peak force (p=0.02), decreased pre-activation of biceps femois (p=0.00), semitendinosus (p=0.00), and medial gastrocnemius before landing and decreased biceps femoris after landing (p<0.002) were observed.     
Conclusion: According to the supportive role of gastrocnemius and hamstrings muscles and contribution of this muscle with ACL ligament at knee joint stability, it seems that lower limb fatigue can lead to ACL injury and reduction of the stability of the knee. Increased flexion angle at foot contact, reduced ground reaction force, and increased time to pike may be related to the nervous system strategy to shock absorption and reduce injury of lower limb joints.

Keywords

Main Subjects


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Volume 7, Issue 2
July and August 2018
Pages 1-10
  • Receive Date: 21 October 2017
  • Revise Date: 20 December 2017
  • Accept Date: 28 December 2017
  • First Publish Date: 22 June 2018