Abstract
Background. Lower extremity stiffness is thought to be an important factor in musculoskeletal
performance. However, too little or too much stiffness is believed to increase the
risk of musculoskeletal injury.
Purpose. To provide a current update of the lower extremity stiffness literature as it pertains
to both performance and injury.
Summary. It appears that increased stiffness is beneficial to performance. As well it appears
that there may be an optimal amount of stiffness that allows for injury-free performance.
There is some evidence that increased stiffness may be related to bony injuries and
decreased stiffness may be associated with soft tissue injuries. Further investigations
should evaluate the relationship between stiffness and injury prospectively. Initial
reports suggest that stiffness can be modified in response to the external environment
or verbal cues.Relevance.
A greater understanding of the role of stiffness in both performance and injury will
provide a stronger foundation for the development of optimal training intervention
programs.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Clinical BiomechanicsAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Leg stiffness and mechanical energetic processes during jumping on a sprung surface.Med. Sci. Sports. 2001; 33: 923-931
- A three-dimensional shank-foot model to determine the foot motion during landings.Med. Sci. Sports. 2002; 34: 130-138
- The effect of speed on leg stiffness and joint kinetics in human running.J. Biomech. 1999; 32: 1349-1353
- Influence of leg stiffness and its effect on myodynamic jumping performance.J. Electromyogr. Kinesiol. 2001; 11: 355-364
- Bone remodeling in response to in vivo fatigue microdamage.J. Biomech. 1985; 18: 189-200
- Force platforms as ergometers.J. Appl. Physiol. 1985; 39: 174-179
- The determinants of the step frequency in running, trotting and hopping in man and other vertebrates.J. Physiol. 1988; 399: 81-92
- Modeling the stiffness characteristics of the human body while running with various stride lengths.J. Appl. Biomech. 2000; 16: 36-51
- Effect of landing stiffness on joint kinetics and energetics in the lower extremity.Med. Sci. Sports. 1992; 24: 108-115
- The evaluation and prediction of impact forces during landings.Med. Sci. Sports. 1990; 22: 370-377
- Changes in spring–mass characteristics during treadmill running to exhaustion.Med. Sci. Sports. 2002; 34: 1324-1331
- Hopping frequency in humans: a test of how springs set stride frequency in bouncing gaits.J. Appl. Physiol. 1991; 71: 2127-2132
- Leg stiffness and stride frequency in human running.J. Biomech. 1996; 29: 181-186
- Mechanism of leg stiffness adjustment for hopping on surfaces of different stiffnesses.J. Appl. Physiol. 1998; 85: 1044-1055
- Leg stiffness primarily depends on ankle stiffness during human hopping.J. Biomech. 1999; 32: 267-273
- Running in the real world: adjusting leg stiffness for different surfaces.Proc. R. Soc. London. 1998; 265: 989-994
- Gender differences in active musculoskeletal stiffness. Part II. Quantification of leg stiffness during functional hopping tasks.J. Electromyogr. Kinesiol. 2001; 12: 127-135
- Bone mass, external loads, and stress fractures in female runners.Int. J. Sport Biomech. 1991; 7: 293-302
Hamill, J., Derrick, T.R., McClay, I., 2000. Joint stiffness during running with different footfall patterns. Conference Proceedings: XIth Congress of the Canadian Society for Biomechanics, Montreal, Que., Canada, p. 47
- “Leg spring” characteristics and the aerobic demand of running.Med. Sci. Sports. 1998; 30: 750-754
- Relationships between ground reaction force and tibial bone acceleration parameters.Int. J. Sport Biomech. 1991; 7: 303-309
- The effect of neuromuscular training on the incidence of knee injury in female athletes: a prospective study.Am. J. Sports Med. 1999; 27: 699-705
- Polymetric training in females athletes: decreased impact forces and decreased hamstring torques.Am. J. Sports Med. 1996; 24: 765-773
- Energetics and mechanics of human running on surfaces of different stiffnesses.J. Appl. Physiol. 2002; 92: 469-478
- Knee and ankle stiffness during sprint running.Med. Sci. Sports. 2002; 34: 166-173
- Joint stiffness: Myth or reality?.Hum. Movement Sci. 1993; 12: 653-692
Laughton, C.A., McClay Davis, Z.I., Hamill, J., Richards, J., 2003. Effect of orthotic intervention and strike pattern on tibial shock in runners. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, in press
- The mechanics of running: how does stiffness couple with speed?.J. Biomech. 1990; 23: 65-78
- Groucho running.J. Appl. Physiol. 1987; 62: 2326-2337
- Effect of repetitive impulse loading on the knee joints of rabbits.Clin. Orthop. 1978; 131: 293-299
- A movement criterion for running.J. Biomech. 2002; 35: 649-655
- Adjustment to vertical displacement and stiffness with changes to running footwear stiffness.Med. Sci. Sports. 2002; 34: S179
- Dynamic angular stiffness of the ankle joint during running and sprinting.J. Appl. Biomech. 1998; 14: 292-299
Williams, D.S., McClay Davis, I., Scholz, J.P., Hamill J., Buchanan, T.S., 2003. Lower extremity stiffness in runners with different foot types. Gait and Posture, in press
- Arch structure and injury patterns in runners.Clin. Biomech. 2001; 16: 341-347
- Contributions of lower extremity joints to energy dissipation during landings.Med. Sci. Sports. 2000; 32: 812-819
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
March 21,
2003
Received:
November 20,
2002
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
