The effects on knee angular velocity after a 6-weeks training period with the new training device ProPrioPlate- a pilot study

Sammanfattning: AbstractBackground: ACL injuries is common and can result in long term disability or even have a career ending outcome for the athlete. Women are more exposed to ACL injuries than men are and several factors increase the risk of ACL injuries for women where one is the knee angle velocity. It seems that prevention programs involving plyometric- and strength training has been most effective on altering these risk factors for knee injuries. But many programs involve several exercises which makes it very time consuming. Since the gluteus muscles is our main hip abductor and hip stabilizer it is of great importance for controlling the knee. The ProPrioPlate (PPP) is a device that has been validated and shown to activate the gluteus medius 40% more in a squat compared to a regular bodyweight squat.Purpose: To investigate if a 6 week long training period, 3 sessions/ week, 5minutes/session with the PPP could decrease the mean abduction angular velocity (°/sec) of the knee joint in a Drop jump (DJ) in women with poor knee stabilityMethod: An experimental study design was used. Twelve female athletes with poor knee stability and signs of knee valgus in a drop jump conducted a 6 weeks training program to investigate any changes in abduction angular velocity in a DJ. 3D motion analyzes were performed before and after the training period. Wilcoxon signed ranked test was used to investigate if there were any changes in results between the different test occasions.Results: Median abduction angular velocity of the test performed before the intervention was -34. 34 (min -70. 65 max -11. 53) deg/sec and after the intervention median -34. 22 deg/sec (min -51. 97 max -3. 28). The P value was 0.24 which indicate that there were no statistical significant differences between the three testing occasions. Compliance to the intervention was low, 15%.Conclusion: A 6 weeks training period with the PPP did not decrease the abduction angular velocity. Due to low compliance rate amongst of subjects no conclusion regarding the effect of the device can be made.