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Updated: Feb 21, 2026
Muscle Imbalances: Testing and Training Functional Eccentric Hamstring Strength in Athletic Populations
Published on: May 1, 2018
Relationships of hamstring muscle volumes to lateral tibial slope
Randy J Schmitz1, Anthony S Kulas2, Sandra J Shultz1
1The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, United States.
Background:
Greater posterior-inferior directed slope of the lateral tibial plateau (LTS) has been demonstrated to be a prospective ACL injury risk factor. Trainable measures to overcome a greater LTS need to be identified for optimizing injury prevention protocols. It was hypothesized that Healthy individuals with greater LTS who have not sustained an ACL injury would have a larger lateral hamstring volume.
Methods:
Eleven healthy females (mean +/- standard deviation) (1.63±0.07m, 62.0±8.9kg, 22.6±2.9years) & 10 healthy males (1.80±0.08m, 82.3±12.0kg, 23.2±3.4years) underwent magnetic resonance imaging of the left knee and thigh. LTS, semitendinosus muscle volume, and biceps femoris long head muscle volume were obtained from imaging data.
Results:
After controlling for potential sex confounds (R2=.00; P=.862), lesser semitendinosus volume and greater biceps femoris-long head volume were indicative of greater LTS (R2∆=.30, P=.008).
Conclusions:
Healthy individuals with greater LTS have a muscular morphologic profile that includes a larger biceps femoris-long head volume. This may be indicative of a biomechanical strategy that relies more heavily on force generation of the lateral hamstring and is less reliant on force generation of the medial hamstring.
Level Of Evidence:
Level IV.
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