Objective

The purpose of this study was to characterize lower extremity passive muscle stiffness in a young, healthy, athletic population. It was hypothesized that males would exhibit greater stiffness than females and that hamstring stiffness would increase with increased passive hamstring stretch.

Methods

Male (n = 52, age 16.0 ± 1.3 years, height 180.3 ± 7.9 cm, weight 73.1 ± 11.8 kg) and female (n = 89, age 15.6 ± 1.3 years, height 169.7 ± 8.1 cm, weight 65.2 ± 13.2 kg) high school basketball athletes were recruited for this study. Shear wave elastography (SWE) was used to measure shear wave velocity (m/s) of the biceps femoris muscle at three leg positions (40%, 60%, and 80%) of the maximum passive 90–90 straight-leg raise position for each leg. Hamstring stiffness (kPa) was quantified from the SWE elastogram using custom processing software.

Results

Hamstring stiffness was significantly greater for males than females at every position on both the dominant and non-dominant limbs (p < 0.05). Hamstring stiffness was greater on the non-dominant limb than the dominant for females at the 40% position. Stiffness at 60% was greater than stiffness at 40% for males on both the dominant and non-dominant limbs. However, stiffness at 60% was greater than stiffness at 80% on the male non-dominant limb. Females demonstrated higher stiffness at 40% than both 60% and 80% for the dominant and non-dominant limbs.

Conclusion

Healthy male basketball players had higher hamstring muscle stiffness than female players. Future studies may investigate what factors contribute to the large variability observed in muscle stiffness, resulting in mixed results on the effects of leg dominance and stretching positions.

中文翻译：

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根据剪切波弹性成像评估，高中男篮球运动员表现出比女性更大的腘绳肌僵硬。

客观的

本研究的目的是表征年轻、健康、运动人群的下肢被动肌肉僵硬。据推测，男性比女性表现出更大的刚度，并且腘绳肌的刚度会随着被动腘绳肌拉伸的增加而增加。

方法

男（n  =52，年龄16.0±1.3岁，身高180.3±7.9cm，体重73.1±11.8kg）和女（n  =89，年龄15.6±1.3岁，身高169.7±8.1cm，体重65.2±13.2kg）高13.2kg本研究招募了学校篮球运动员。剪切波弹性成像 (SWE) 用于测量最大被动 90-90 直腿抬高位置的三个腿部位置（40%、60% 和 80%）处股二头肌的剪切波速度（m/s）每条腿。使用定制处理软件从 SWE 弹性图量化腘绳肌刚度 (kPa)。

结果

在优势和非优势肢体的每个位置，男性的腘绳肌僵硬都显着大于女性（p  < 0.05）。在 40% 位置，非优势肢体的腘绳肌刚度大于女性的优势肢体。男性在优势和非优势肢体上，60% 的刚度大于 40% 的刚度。然而，男性非优势肢体 60% 的刚度大于 80% 的刚度。对于优势和非优势肢体，女性表现出 40% 的刚度高于 60% 和 80%。

结论

健康男性篮球运动员的腘绳肌僵硬程度高于女性运动员。未来的研究可能会调查哪些因素导致在肌肉僵硬中观察到的巨大可变性，从而导致对腿部优势和伸展位置影响的混合结果。