Lower Limb Joint Mechanics during Maximal Accelerative and Decelerative Running.

INTRODUCTION: Maximal acceleration and deceleration tasks are frequently required in team sports, often occurring rapidly in response to external stimuli. Accelerating and decelerating can be associated with lower limb injuries, thus knowledge of joint mechanics during these tasks can improve the understanding of both human high performance and injury mechanisms. The current study investigated the fundamental differences in lower limb joint mechanics when accelerating and decelerating by directly comparing the hip, knee and ankle joint moments and work done between the two tasks.

METHODS: Twenty participants performed maximal effort acceleration and deceleration trials, with three-dimensional marker trajectories and ground reaction forces collected simultaneously. Experimental data was combined with inverse dynamics analysis to compute joint moments and work.

RESULTS: Net joint work for all lower limb joints was positive during acceleration, and negative during deceleration. This occurred due to significantly greater positive work production from the ankle and hip during acceleration, and significantly greater negative work production from all joints during deceleration. The largest contributions to positive work during acceleration came from the ankle, followed by the hip and knee joints; whilst the largest contributions to negative work during deceleration came from the knee and hip joints, followed by the ankle. Peak joint moments were significantly greater when decelerating compared to accelerating, except for the peak ankle plantarflexion and hip flexion moments which were significantly greater when accelerating.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings may help to guide training interventions which aim to enhance the performance of acceleration and deceleration tasks, whilst also mitigating the associated injury risk.