Strength development following a six-week risk reduction athletic development training program in men and women

Abstract

This study retrospectively evaluated data from an athlete management system on the impact of a 6-week, 12-session risk-reduction athletic development training program on maximal isometric strength in post-rehabilitative and healthy men and women. Maximal isometric quadriceps and hamstrings strength were evaluated bilaterally before and after the training program. Out of 55 athletes that had participated in the program, a total of 37 athletes' (13-28 years old) recorded outcomes were utilized in analyses. Thirty-one athletes had undergone rehabilitation (post-rehabilitative athletes) after orthopedic knee surgeries. Six athletes with no previous surgeries performed (healthy athletes) also completed the 6-week program. Repeated measures analyses of variance (leg × time) assessed changes in quadriceps and hamstrings strength at an alpha of p ​≤ ​0.05. There was a main effect for time where the post-rehabilitative athletes’ quadriceps and hamstrings strength increased by (mean difference ​± ​standard error) (4.2 ​± ​0.7) kg (p ​< ​0.01) and (4.5 ​± ​0.9) kg (p ​< ​0.01) respectively, with legs (operative [OP]) and non-operative [NOP]) combined. With time points combined, the OP limb was weaker than the NOP limb for quadriceps strength by (2.9 ​± ​0.7) kg (p ​< ​0.01) with no differences in hamstrings strength. For the healthy athletes, there were no changes for quadriceps strength and hamstring strength improved across time by (5.3 ​± ​1.4) kg (p ​= ​0.01) with legs combined.

In conclusion, there were improvements in post-rehabilitative and healthy athletes’ isometric strength after the training program. However, between-limb strength asymmetries were still apparent in the post-rehabilitation cohort.

Keywords

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction / Asymmetry / Injury prevention / Sports medicine

Conflict of interest

Dr. Bryan G. Vopat reports stock or stock options for Altior, Carbon 22, and Spinal Simplicity, is a paid consultant for Artelon and is a board/committee member of the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society.

Ethics approval statement

The study was reviewed and approved as a retrospective chart review by the University of Kansas Medical Center Human Research Protections Program (STUDY00148827) in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The review board determined that informed consent was not required from participants due to the retrospective design.

Data sharing statement

Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Christopher J. Cleary: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Methodology, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Krisha Crane: Writing - review & editing, Data curation. Lisa M. Vopat: Writing - review & editing, Conceptualization. Bryan G. Vopat: Writing - review & editing, Conceptualization. Ashley A. Herda: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Formal analysis, Conceptualization.

Acknowledgements

None.

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