Muscle fatigue in the gluteus maximus changes muscle synergies during single-leg landing

Hamstring strain often occurs at the end of a match or during practice in sports activities. The gluteus maximus muscle is an important muscle for hip extension along with the hamstring. Gluteus maximus muscle dysfunction may be involved in the occurrence of hamstring strain. Therefore, we focused on gluteus maximus muscle fatigue and investigated gluteus maximus and hamstring coordination.

He activities of the right side of the erector spinae, internal oblique, upper, and lower gluteus maximus fibers, gluteus medius, rectus femoris, semitendinosus, and medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle were measured in 21 young healthy men during single-leg landing before and after fatigue intervention. Fatigue intervention of the gluteus maximus muscle was performed using electrical muscle stimulation. Electromyography data were analyzed using non-negative matrix factorization. Additionally, to evaluate gluteus maximus fatigue, an isometric hip extension strength test and frequency analysis were performed before and after the intervention.

The isometric strength power and median frequency significantly decreased after intervention. Two muscle synergies were extracted and the contribution of semitendinosus of a synergy that was activated just before landing, significantly increased due to the intervention.

The results of the isometric hip strength test and frequency analysis, the gluteus maximus fatigued by the intervention. The hip extensor muscles eccentrically contract to absorb the ground reaction force during landing. Therefore, our results may suggest that the eccentric load increases for the hamstring due to gluteus maximus muscle fatigue and may be a risk factor for hamstring strain.