Old Habits Die Hard: Kinematic Carryover Between Low- and High-Impact Tasks in Active Females

Knee injury risk screening protocols predominantly employ high-impact tasks (HIT), but there is a need for low-impact movement screening alternatives. This study aimed to investigate kinematic carryover between low-impact tasks (LIT) and HIT.

This study employed a cross-sectional design. Eighteen healthy, active females with no history of injury within the last six months, aged between 18-35 years completed three trials of LIT (stand-to-sit, single-leg stand-to-sit) and HIT (drop vertical jump, single-leg drop vertical jump). Hip and knee three-dimensional kinematics were evaluated during LIT and HIT. Pearson correlation analyses were used to assess kinematic relationships between LIT and HIT. A post-hoc exploratory analysis examined the consistency of kinematic directionality across tasks.

In the frontal plane, the dominant hip, dominant knee, and non-dominant knee during LIT demonstrated a strong positive correlation and directional consistency with the corresponding values during HITs (p < 0.001). In the transverse plane, non-dominant hip, dominant knee, and non-dominant knee kinematics during LITs demonstrated directional consistency and a strong positive correlation with respective kinematics during HITs (p < 0.001).

The similarities in hip and knee kinematic patterns suggest that motor responses may generalize across varying task intensities. Thus, LITs may be a useful tool in early knee injury risk identification.