Comparison of Immediate and Long-Term Effect of Forward and Backward Running Trainings on Knee joint Position Sense

Knowledge from various training effect on the proprioception can be useful in the design of training and injury prevention program. The purpose of this study was to compare of immediate and long-term effect of forward and backward running training on knee joint position sense.

30 male college athletes participated in this study and divided accidentally into two forward and backward runninggroups. Knee joint position sense was measured by photography and angle analysis using Adobe Acrobat software in both open and closed kinetic chain before, after a session and after four weeks of running on treadmill.

The average of absolute repositioning error decreased significantly in the closed kinetic chain immediately after forward running training (p=0.035, ES=1.24) and in this respect, there was a significant difference between the two groups (p=0/047); but, there was no significant difference between the two groups in open kinetic chain (p=0.592). Also, after four weeks training, average of absolute repositioning error decreases significantly only in the closed kinetic chain and in backward running subjects (p=0.025, ES=1.34); but there was no significant difference between the two groups (p=0/305).

Forward running training has the positive immediate effect on the knee joint position sense than backward running, but in the long-term there was no significant difference between the two trainings. However, significant effect of backward running and very large of effect sizes showed the desirable effectiveness of this training than forward running.