Maximum and explosive strength in brazilian kickboxing athletes: asymmetries between limbs and the relationship with the single jump distance

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to perform an exploratory study on the lower limb neuromechanical profile of kickboxing athletes.

Methods: Knee extensors (KE) and flexors (KF) peak torques (PT) were measured and KF/KE was obtained. The KE peak rate of torque development (pRTD), single-hop distance (SHD), and vastus lateralis muscle thickness were measured. The inter-limb asymmetry index (ILA) was calculated for each variable.

Results: We did not observe differences between limbs (dominant vs. non-dominant) for any variable. However, more than 40% of the athletes demonstrated a KF/KE deficit and the pRTD ILA (mean of ~20%) was significantly greater than other ILAs (from 5 to 9%, p=0.01). The SHD was correlated only to the pRTD (rho=0.59, p=0.01).

Conclusions: Kickboxing athletes demonstrated a similar neuromechanical profile to well-trained athletes from other sports modalities. The explosive strength seems to be more discernible regarding inter-limb asymmetries. The moderate positive relationship between SHD and pRTD suggests that the single hop test can be used as a surrogate measure in the lack of direct explosive strength measures.