Evaluating movement performance: What you see isn't necessarily what you get

With the goal of reducing injury and enhancing performance, movement screening tools score an individual's movements against a standard and because it is a predictor of injury symmetry is often included in the score. Movement quality screening tools only consider kinematic asymmetry, which may underestimate the degree of asymmetry present during movement. Consider joint forces: if these forces are atypical, additional stress is created and control is reduced, which can lead to injury if the asymmetry is not addressed. The purpose of this study is to investigate movement symmetry in the kinematic, kinetic and muscle activity components of movement during a parallel squat. Thirty-four healthy individuals completed five body-weight, parallel squats. A motion capture system, two portable force plates, and electromyography (EMG) sensors recorded the squat motion, ground reaction forces and muscle activity. The variables of interest were the joint angles, joint moments, and EMG waveforms. Cross-correlations and normalized root-mean-square values were calculated for the left and right ankles, knees, and hips for each variable. A repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) tested for differences in symmetry (cross-correlation and nRMS) between the kinematic, kinetic, and muscle activity components at the ankle, knee, and hip during the squat. At all joints the kinematic component had the highest degree of symmetry, and the kinetic and muscle activity components showed poorer symmetry, with the muscle activity component being the least symmetric. The differences in symmetry between movement components suggests that movement performance evaluations should not rely exclusively on kinematics and observation to identify potential movement faults.