Relationships Between Lower-Body Muscle Structure and Lower-Body Strength, Power, and Muscle-Tendon Complex Stiffness

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether any relationships were present between lower-body muscle structure and strength and power qualities. Fifteen elite male surfing athletes performed a battery of lower-body strength and power tests, including countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), isometric midthigh pull (IMTP), and had their lower-body muscle structure assessed with ultrasonography. In addition, lower-body muscle-tendon complex (MTC) stiffness and dynamic strength deficit (DSD) ratio were calculated from the CMJ and IMTP. Significant relationships of large to very large strength were observed between the vastus lateralis (VL) thickness of the left (LVL) and right (RVL) leg and peak force (PF) (r = 0.54-0.77, p < 0.01-0.04), peak velocity (PV) (r = 0.66-0.83, p < 0.01), and peak jump height (r = 0.62-0.80, p < 0.01) in the CMJ and SJ, as well as IMTP PF (r = 0.53-0.60, p = 0.02-0.04). Furthermore, large relationships were found between left lateral gastrocnemius (LG) pennation angle and SJ and IMTP PF (r = 0.53, p = 0.04, and r = 0.70, p < 0.01, respectively) and between LG and IMTP relative PF (r = 0.63, p = 0.01). Additionally, large relationships were identified between lower-body MTC stiffness and DSD ratio (r = 0.68, p < 0.01), right (LG) pennation angle (r = 0.51, p = 0.05), CMJ PF (r = 0.60, p = 0.02), and jump height (r = 0.53, p = 0.04). These results indicate that greater VL thickness and increased LG pennation angle are related to improved performance in the CMJ, SJ, and IMTP. Furthermore, these results suggest that lower-body MTC stiffness explains a large amount of variance in determining an athlete's ability to rapidly apply force during a dynamic movement.

Relationships between lower body muscle structure and isometric mid-thigh pull peak force

“…the dominant leg for 13 of the 15 athletes tested) was significantly correlated with peak force (r = 0.53, p = 0.04) attained in the SJ and both absolute (r = 0.70, p < 0.01) and relative (r = 0.63, p = 0.01) peak force produced in the IMTP. 3 Large correlation coefficients were also observed between bilateral VL muscle thickness and IMTP peak force (r = 0.67, p < 0.01) in junior competitive male and female surfers, with bilateral LG muscle thickness (r = 0.54, p < 0.01) and VL pennation angle (r = 0.46, p < 0.01) also demonstrating large and moderate associations, respectively, with IMTP peak force for this cohort.…”

“…1 Each of the aforementioned aspects of muscle structure can be reliably 2 and noninvasively quantified for multiple upper and lower body muscles via ultrasonography. This notion has led to muscle structure assessments forming part of a range of recently conducted cross-sectional [3][4][5][6][7] and intervention studies [8][9][10][11] . Correlational analyses conducted as part of many of these studies have linked distinct aspects of lower body muscle architecture to peak force and power measured during several dynamic 3,4,7 and isometric 3,8 tasks thought to be beneficial to athletic performance.…”

“…3 Furthermore, the lateral gastrocnemius (LG) pennation angle of this groups' left leg (i.e. the dominant leg for 13 of the 15 athletes tested) was significantly correlated with peak force (r = 0.53, p = 0.04) attained in the SJ and both absolute (r = 0.70, p < 0.01) and relative (r = 0.63, p = 0.01) peak force produced in the IMTP.…”

“…power clean and hang power clean) 6,8 . The assessment of peak force in particular is of paramount importance to athletic development, given that peak force capacity (in both absolute terms and relative to body mass) is known to influence sprint 14,15 , jump 3,[15][16][17][18] and change of direction 14,19 performances. Peak force capacity was assessed in each of the aforementioned studies via the performance of maximal IMTPs, which was first introduced by Haff et al 20 and has since become an increasingly popular assessment measure due to its high reliability 14,21,22 , even when quantified using low sampling frequencies (e.g.…”

Comparison of eccentric utilization ratio of elite karate (kata) with elite Wushu athletes

“…Karate Kata and Wushu Taolu have many similarities as movements in these events are preset and require the exponent to execute all steps in a controlled and deliberate manner. The countermovement jump (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) are commonly used tools to assess eccentric utilization ratio (EUR) in sports (McGuigan, et al, 2006;Secomb, et al, 2015). To our knowledge, there are no studies conducted to compare the EUR characteristics of a martial arts athletes specializing in the aesthetic forms of combat sports.…”