Effects of pelvic and core strength training on biomechanical risk factors for anterior cruciate ligament injuries

Abstract

BacKGrouNdː little is known about the changes in biomechanical risk factors for an anterior cruciate ligament (acl) injury after participation in a pelvic and core strength training (pcST) program in female team players. MeThodSː This is a randomized controlled trial for which a total of 29 female soccer players were recruited from a soccer club and split into two groups, namely, experimental group (eG, N.=18; mean [Sd] age, 17.8±2.0 years, weight 64.0 [6.6 kg and height 1.7 [0.0] m) and control group (control, N.=11; mean [Sd] age, 16.2 [1.2] years, weight 61.6 [7.3] kg and height 1.7 [0.0] m). The eG participated in an in-season 8-week pcST program (twice/week). participants in the cG performed their normal training without additional pelvic and core strengthening. pre-and postintervention knee frontal plane projection angle (fppa), hip, knee and ankle peak flexion angles and jump height were collected during bilateral and unilateral drop jumps. reSulTSː pcST significantly reduced fppa at dynamic landing, in both dominant (-7.1º) and non-dominant lower extremities (-8.01º). further, this training significantly increased the peak hip (24.43º) and knee flexion angles (14.94º), but not the peak ankle dorsiflexion angle (p>0.05) which, significantly decreased in the cG (-3.5º). following the intervention, eG significantly increased measures obtained for both bilateral (2.84 cm) and unilateral jumps (1.33 cm for the dominant leg and 1.22 cm for the non-dominant leg) (p<0.05), not so for cG (p>0.05). coNcluSioNSː pcST resulted in improvements on acl injury risk factors and vertical drop jump performance, suggesting that strengthening this body part warrants not only injury prevention, but increases jumping performance.(Cite this article as: ferri-caruana a, prades-insa B, Serra-añó p. effects of pelvic and core strength training on biomechanical risk factors for anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

Relationship between Hip Abductor Muscle Strength and Frontal Plane Kinematics: A Cross-Sectional Study in Elite Handball Athletes

“…Several authors have suggested that pelvis, hip, and knee frontal plane kinematics are associated with hip abductor muscles strength (gluteus medius muscle, gluteus minimus muscle, and tensor fasciae latae muscle) [14][15][16][17]. Hip abductor muscles strengthening has shown a reduction in contralateral pelvic drop, femoral adduction, and dynamic knee valgus during single-leg tasks [18,19]. In addition, athletes with knee injuries have shown hip abductor muscles weakness [20].…”

“…In addition, athletes with knee injuries have shown hip abductor muscles weakness [20]. However, these studies have been performed on runners, soccer, basketball, and volleyball athletes [14,15,19]. Even though HB has shown a higher risk of injury than runners, basketball, and volleyball athletes [3], to the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated whether there is a correlation between the frontal plane kinematics and the strength of the hip abductor muscles in HB athletes.…”

Effect of Strength Training on Jump-Landing Biomechanics in Adolescent Females

“…Poor core strength is considered a risk factor for injury, and core strengthening has been shown to improve neuromuscular control in previous studies. 8,10,23,25,51 Thus, an active upper extremity strengthening control group may have confounded their results. The control group in our investigation did not have any formal strength training of any type.…”

“…36 This is significant, as core strengthening has been shown to improve biomechanics in postmaturation athletes. 8,10,44,49 The investigators did report increases in strength measures for 10-repetition maximums of squats and lunges in the intervention group and chest presses and curls in the control group 36 ; however, they appeared to assess neither lower extremity strength gains by the control group nor strength gains by individual joint motion in either group. As such, the possibility exists that the strength-training intervention was not of sufficient intensity, frequency, or duration to create a differential effect in strength compared with the active control group.…”

“…To date, strength-training interventions have had mixed results in improving lower extremity biomechanics; however, most of these studies have targeted postmaturation participants such as college-aged athletes. 6,10,17,46 As such, the strength interventions in these studies were applied after the development of altered biomechanical patterns rather than as a method of preventing the development of these biomechanical patterns.…”