The validity and reliability of a test of lower body musculotendinous stiffness

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of an in vivo test of lower body musculotendinous stiffness. Male subjects (n = 23) with at least 12 months of weight training experience performed a series of quasi-static muscular actions in a supine leg press position during which a brief perturbation was applied. The resulting damped oscillations enabled each subject's maximal musculotendinous stiffness for the lower body musculature to be estimated. To assess the individual's capacity to benefit from active stretch, subjects also performed both a static jump and a countermovement jump. Statistical analysis revealed no significant different between day 1 and day 2 stiffness values (P < 0.01), an interday reliability of r = 0.94 and a coefficient of variance of 8%. It was further demonstrated that maximal stiffness was significantly correlated to both isometric and concentric rate of force development (r = 0.50 and r = 0.54, respectively), and inversely related to the percentage difference between vertical jumps with and without prior stretch (r = -0.54). Such results tend to suggest that the test is valid and are discussed with reference to the restitution of elastic strain energy, muscle potentiation and the interaction effects of elastic recoil on dynamic muscular function. It was concluded that the assessment of stiffness of the lower body using the oscillation technique is a valid and reliable in vivo measure of musculotendinous stiffness.

Muscle Power Output Properties Using the Stretch-shortening Cycle of the Upper Limb and Their Relationships with a One-Repetition Maximum Bench Press

“…These results support the potentiation by SSC in previous studies that examined the movements of lower limbs (Asmussen and Bonde-Petersen, 1974;Bosco and Komi, 1979;Zushi and Takamatsu, 1995;Walshe et al, 1996) and upper limbs (Takamatsu et al, 1991;Wilson et al, 1992Wilson et al, , 1994Elliott et al, 1999). Asmussen and Bonde-Petersen (1974) reported that mechanical energy is conserved in a muscular elastic element during countermovement and it is reused in active work, and energy is hardly conserved in the muscle in a movement by which power is exerted from the state of the rest.…”

“…Studies on SSC were started by Cavagna et al (1965), and were conducted chiefly by Asmussen et al (1974), Walshe et al (1996) and Bosco and Komi (1979) using running or jumping. Although studies on SSC of the upper limbs have been conducted using elbow flexion (Takamatsu et al, 1991) or bench pressing (Wilson et al, 1991;Newton et al, 1996), there are very few such studies as compared with those for lower limbs.…”

“…Power output properties using SSC differ considerably in each individual (Wilson et al, 1994;Walshe et al, 1996), and the elasticity property of the tendon and muscle-tendon complex (MTC) shows peculiar changes by training loads and muscle contraction types (Kubo et al, 2000a, b). The difference in training is, therefore, considered to influence the power output by SSC.…”

Reliability and consistency of plantarflexor stretch-shortening cycle function using an adapted force sledge apparatus

“…Stiffness is calculated as change in joint moment divided by angular displacement (similar to joint stiffness) and related to the isometric torque of the preceding 20 ms with the stiffness-torque relationship considered an index of MTU stiffness. Reliability is established for both methods (Lambertz et al, 2008;McLachlan et al, 2006;Murphy, 2003) with construct validity established for the oscillation technique (Walshe et al, 1996). Neither method provides a measure of the stiffness of the tendon itself however, as measurement of that requires measurement of tendon elongation and tendon force.…”

Influence of body composition on selected jump performance measures in collegiate female athletes

“…7 The stretch shortening cycle (SSC) is highly utilized in many sports and sporting activities in which reactive ability is necessary. Furthermore, the more efficient the SSC, the better the rates of force development (RFD), 8 which itself is an important determinant of athletic performance.…”