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Lower Limb Biomechanical Analysis of Healthy Participants
Published on: April 15, 2020
Trunk strength and endurance testing in field-athletes: A reliability study
Thomas A Dekkers1, Catherine Blake2, Kieran D Collins3
1Gaelic Sports Research Centre, Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; Cork University Hospital, Cork, Ireland.
Objectives:
Despite the important role of the trunk muscles in athletic performance and the onset of injury, consensus is lacking as to the best methods to assess trunk strength and endurance in athletic populations in the field. This study aimed to examine the intra-rater reliability of a battery of trunk strength and endurance tests.
Design:
Test-retest reliability study.
Setting:
Isometric trunk strength using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD) and isometric trunk endurance using the McGill protocol and novel 'long-lever' tests were evaluated.
Participants:
Twenty-three male field-athletes.
Main Outcome Measures:
Intra-class coefficient (ICC) and standard error of measurement (SEM).
Results:
For relative reliability, good to excellent results were found for all HHD strength tests (ICC = 0.70-0.91). Relative reliability for trunk endurance tests showed excellent results for the McGill protocol (ICC = 0.80-0.89) and moderate to excellent reliability for the long-lever tests (ICC = 0.57-0.96). The V-Sit endurance test and the isometric lateral flexion strength test showed lower absolute reliability, with relatively high SEM values.
Conclusions:
Therefore, we recommend practitioners assess athlete trunk function by using a HHD to evaluate isometric flexion, extension and rotation trunk strength and the Biering-Sørenson, and long-lever lateral flexion and flexion tests to assess trunk endurance.
