The efficacy of a rehabilitation protocol on the correction of knee valgus in double leg squats. (2008)

Undergraduate: Obafunto Abimbola

Faculty Advisor: Darin Padua
Department: Exercise & Sport Science

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Objective: To determine if correcting muscle imbalances will alter muscle activity and improve medial knee displacement.

Methods: Subjects (n= 29, 25 females, 4 males;, age= 19.83 ± 1.47 yrs; ht= 165.71 ± 7.13 cm; wt=63.83 ±8.76 kg) were randomly assigned to groups medial knee displacement control (MKDC) and medial knee displacement intervention (MKDI). Subjects completed a bike warm up, had passive dorsi-flexion range of motion (DF ROM) assessed, and completed a series of five overhead squats (OHS). MKDI group completed an intervention and MKDC group rested for ten minutes. Subjects then had maximal volitional isometric contraction (MVIC) assessed, DF ROM reassessed, and completed a second series of OHS. Separate repeated measures ANOVAs (p ?0.05) were performed on all dependent variables and Tukey post-hoc was used to determine where differences between groups exist.

Results: There were no significant differences found between MKDC and MKDI groups for the following variables from pre to post intervention: maximum knee valgus angle (F1,26=1.8, P = 0.19), average angle during the descending phase of the squat (F1,26= 1.76,P = 0.20), Dorsi-flexion Straight Knee range of motion (DF-SK) (F1,15 = 0.04, P = 0.84), dorsi-flexion bent knee range of motion (DF-BK) (F1,15 = 0.73, P = 0.41), average tibialis anterior activity (TA EMG) (F1,25 = 0.60, P = 0.44), average medial gastrocnemius activity (MG EMG) (F1,26 = 0.83 , P = 0.37), and average lateral gastrocnemius activity