According to the spring mass model, leg stiffness (characterized by the measure of kleg) behavior is theoretically dependent on lower limb joint and trunk stiffness. Yet, the influence of the trunk as a possible regulator of kleg is unknown. This study investigated the influence of abdominal training on kleg during hopping tasks. Fourteen young male (age 18.5 ± 0.5 years, height 176.4 ± 4.3 cm, weight 69.9 ± 5.5 kg) soccer players (national level) participated in the study. Two groups (bracing B group, n = 7 vs. hollowing transversus abdominis [TrA] H group, n = 7) with identical training load followed an 8-week training program for abdominal strengthening. Contact time, flight time, jump height, and kleg were measured with an OptoJump system during a standardized hopping task (2.2 Hz) before and after the training program. Results for each group showed that only the H group increased kleg after the intervention (+15.7%) compared with the B group (+5.9%). This difference was explained by a 6.5% decrease in contact time in H group (-2.4% in B) with increased flight time (+8.8% in H vs. +2% in B). A large increase was found for jump height in H (+16.9%) compared with B group (+4.4%). This study showed that TrA strengthening improves leg stiffness in hopping tasks. Our findings suggest the potential role of abdominal muscles in controlling "lumbopelvic" stiffness as a part of the spring according to the spring mass model, and thus influencing kleg by reduced ground contact phase.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 September 2013.
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Outputs of similar age from Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research
#50
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Altmetric has tracked 34,526,284 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,447 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 21.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 112 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.
