Acute and chronic effects of aquatic treadmill training on land treadmill running kinematics: A cross-over and single-subject design approach

• Published in: Journal of sports sciences Vol. 35; no. 21; pp. 2105 - 2113
• Main Authors: Bressel, Eadric, Louder, Talin J., Hoover, James P., Roberts, Luke C., Dolny, Dennis G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Routledge 02.11.2017; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Acute effects; Adult; aquatic exercise; Biomechanical Phenomena; biomechanics; Chronic effects; Chronic injuries; Contact angle; Cross-Over Studies; Feet; Female; Fitness equipment; Foot - physiology; foot strike patterns; Gait - physiology; Humans; Kinematics; Knee; Knee - physiology; Male; Middle Aged; Physical Conditioning, Human - methods; Resistance Training - methods; Running; Running - physiology; Studies; Water; Weight-Bearing; Young Adult; biomechanics; Chronic injuries; aquatic exercise; foot strike patterns
• ISSN: 0264-0414; 1466-447X; 1466-447X
• DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2016.1256493

The aim of this study was to determine if selected kinematic measures (foot strike index [SI], knee contact angle and overstride angle) were different between aquatic treadmill (ATM) and land treadmill (LTM) running, and to determine if these measures were altered during LTM running as a result of 6 weeks of ATM training. Acute effects were tested using 15 competitive distance runners who completed 1 session of running on each treadmill type at 5 different running speeds. Subsequently, three recreational runners completed 6 weeks of ATM training following a single-subject baseline, intervention and withdrawal experiment. Kinematic measures were quantified from digitisation of video. Regardless of speed, SI values during ATM running (61.3 ± 17%) were significantly greater (P = 0.002) than LTM running (42.7 ± 23%). Training on the ATM did not change (pre/post) the SI (26 ± 3.2/27 ± 3.1), knee contact angle (165 ± 0.3/164 ± 0.8) or overstride angle (89 ± 0.4/89 ± 0.1) during LTM running. Although SI values were different between acute ATM and LTM running, 6 weeks of ATM training did not appear to alter LTM running kinematics as evidenced by no change in kinematic values from baseline to post intervention assessments.