Bilateral asymmetry of pedaling force at different levels of exercise intensity in cycle ergometer

Abstract

Background and Study Aim. To investigate how bilateral pedaling asymmetries change at exercises with different levels of intensity.
 Material and Methods. Eight students of cycling, average age 25.4 years, were investigated. In the experiment, we recorded the pedal force of the right and left legs during three consecutive exercises of different intensity 35%, 55% and 85% respectively. To quantify the difference in physical parameters of pedaling between the left and right legs, we used two approaches that complement each other in the analysis of bilateral asymmetry. One approach involved determining an asymmetry index, and other was statistical analysis.
 Results. The Student's t-test indicated that the difference between the power samples for the left and right pedals decreased at 85% exercise intensity vs. 55% with a statistical significance of α = 0.05. The bilateral asymmetry in most cases decreased or in two cases remained unchanged. The cases where there was no statistically significant difference between the power samples for both legs at 85% and 55% intensity levels had the lowest asymmetry index.
 Conclusions. The bilateral pedaling asymmetry is reduced at 85% exercise intensity compared to the 55% one. The reduction in asymmetry index ranges from 1% to 14.1%, Combining the asymmetry index and the Student's t-test can increase the informativeness of pedaling power data when analyzing bilateral asymmetry.