Reliability of isokinetic dynamometer for isometric assessment of ankle plantar flexor strength.

Objective: To evaluate isokinetic dynamometer reliability for isometric assessment of plantar flexor (PF) strength.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Testing by the same physiotherapist twice during a first session (repeatability) and once during a second session (reproducibility).

Assessment of hip abductor and adductor muscle strength with fixed-frame dynamometry: Considerations on the use of bilateral and unilateral tasks.

Objective: To examine the specificities and limitations of bilateral and unilateral tasks for the assessment of hip abductor and adductor strength with a commercially-available fixed-frame dynamometer.

Design: Correlational/validity study.

Methods: Maximal voluntary isometric strength of hip abductors and adductors was evaluated in 130 healthy participants using unilateral and bilateral tasks.

Absolute and Normalized Normative Torque Values of Knee Extensors and Flexors in Healthy Trained Subjects: Asymmetry Questions the Classical Use of Uninjured Limb as Reference.

Purpose: To provide normative values of maximal isometric torque of knee extensors and flexors measured at 80° of knee flexion and to characterize the results in healthy subjects practicing activities at risk of anterior cruciate ligament rupture.

Methods: Seventy-four trained volunteers (35 male and 39 female) aged 18 to 41 years were recruited. They alternately performed 3 maximal voluntary isometric contractions of knee extension and flexion.

[Avoiding cognitive bias : example of quantified assessment of muscle strength].

Optimizing treatments requires the prevention of diagnostic errors. The use of shortcuts, cognitive biases, may lead to errors of judgement that can impair clinical reasoning and distort decision-making. Objective, quantifiable and comparable assessment is a safeguard against this, and for instance force quantification is used for this purpose.

Supraspinal Control of Recurrent Inhibition during Anisometric Contractions.

Purpose: Increase in recurrent inhibition was observed during eccentric compared with isometric and concentric maximal voluntary contractions but the neural mechanisms involved in this specific control of the Renshaw cell activity are unknown. This study was designed to investigate the supraspinal control of the recurrent inhibition during anisometric contractions of the plantar flexor muscles.

Methods: To that purpose, the paired Hoffmann-reflex (H-reflex) technique permitted to assess changes in homonymous recurrent pathway by comparing the modulations of test and conditioning H-reflexes (H' and H1, respectively) in the soleus (SOL) muscle during maximal and submaximal isometric, concentric and eccentric contractions.

Neural adaptations to submaximal isokinetic eccentric strength training.

Purpose: This study investigated the neural adaptations following submaximal isokinetic eccentric strength training of the plantar flexors. The modulation of electromyographic (EMG) activity and spinal excitability were compared in the soleus muscle (SOL) during isometric, concentric and eccentric maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) before and after submaximal isokinetic eccentric training.

Methods: Eighteen healthy subjects were divided into a training group (n = 8) and a control group (n = 10).