Local Asymmetry and Global Sym-metry During Jogging in Young Male Athletes

Evaluation of joints behavioral symmetry of the lower limbs to produce a smooth, rhythmic movement is one of the topics in the field of biomechanics of running. This study investigated joints local and global symmetry while jogging in young male athletes. This was a quasi-experimental study. Random sampling method was used and the participants of the study included 15 healthy young male athletes (Mean±SD age=27.14±3.67 years, Mean±SD height=176.57±5.06 cm, Mean±SD weight=69.84±6.13 kg). A 6-camera motion analysis system synchronized with 2 force plate devices and a 3D Marker-set were used for data collection. Participants ran with 155 bpm step frequency controlled by a metronome. After filtering the data, kinematic and kinetic parameters were calculated using inverse dynamics method and the calculated data were normalized based on body weight and 100% running gait cycle. Paired student t-test at the significance level of 0.05 was used for determining the differences between the selected peaks of ankle, knee and hip joints moment of the dominant and Non dominant limbs. The principal component analysis technique was used on the support phase of the sagittal plane joint moment in order to compare and evaluate functional asymmetry and identify each joint (local symmetry) and lower limb actions (global symmetry). SPSS was used for statistical analysis. Based on the findings, there were no significant differences in spatio-temporal parameters of the dominant and Non dominant limbs. Although, principal component analysis detected different functional tasks for similar joints, the same tasks were identified for the lower limbs using this method. It seems that local asymmetry and global symmetry occurs during jogging in young male athletes and central nervous system compensatory mechanisms might play an important role in this matter.