Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2017

Publication Title

Physical Therapy in Sport

Volume

24

First Page

13

Last Page

19

Abstract

Objective: To determine if patellar tendon straps altered quadriceps’ muscle activity during a drop-jump landing in males with and without patellar tendinopathy.

Design: Case-control.

Settings: Biomechanics Research Laboratory.

Participants: Twenty recreationally-active males participated: ten (age=21.3±2.4 years, height=182.8±5.3cm, mass=81.7±8.6kg) with patellar tendinopathy; ten (age=22.0±1.6 years, height=185.7±4.5 cm, mass=82.2±9.8kg) were healthy with no history of tendinopathy.

Main Outcome Measures: Electromyography (EMG) data for the vastus medialis (VM), rectus femoris (RF), and vastus lateralis (VL) muscles were collected. Five 2-legged 40cm drop-jumps were performed wearing a patellar tendon strap and 5 with no-strap in a counterbalanced order.

Root-mean square EMG (REMG) values of the VM, RF, and VL were averaged for a pre-landing and post-landing interval. Multiple mixed-model two-way ANOVAs were performed to determine the effect of tendinopathy and strapping condition on REMG values for each muscle. Results: For the pre-landing interval, all participants displayed lesser VL EMG activation (0.44±0.19%, 0.53±0.27%, respectively; p=.007, d=0.39) in the no-strap compared with the strap condition.

Conclusions: When wearing a strap, all participants demonstrated lower VL activation prior to landing which may be helpful in reducing tensile stress at the tendon. These effects may be clinically important in modulating pain in those with patellar tendinopathy.

Comments

This post-print version of the article is released with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 License.

The published version of the article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2016.09.007.

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