The relationship between muscle strength, balance and functional ability in recreationally active young adults

Mak, Natalie, Howe, Seb, Monkman, Ella, Pemberton, Megan, Whiffin, Emily and Samuel, Dinesh (2023) The relationship between muscle strength, balance and functional ability in recreationally active young adults. CSP Annual Conference, , Birmingham, United Kingdom. 24 Oct - 10 Nov 2023.

Abstract

Purpose: measures of muscle strength, balance and functional ability help characterise physical performance. Functional tests such as sit-to-stand (STS) tests are widely used as a measure of lower limb muscle strength, involving the elderly and adults with specific pathological conditions. There is limited evidence on recreationally active young adults which highlights the need for further investigation into the younger population. Moreover, tests such as the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) which assesses exercise tolerance are neither time-efficient nor cost-effective. Therefore, robust, easily implemented, and portable alternative tests are needed to accurately assess physical performance. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between muscle strength, balance and functional ability in recreationally active young adults.

Methods: 25 male hockey players aged 18-35 years were recruited to this cross-sectional, quantitative experimental study. Exclusion criteria included professional/semi-professional athletes, lower limb injury/surgery in the past 6 months, chronic back pain and any neuromusculoskeletal disorders. Participants completed the 5-repetition STS (5RSTS), 30-second STS (30sSTS), modified Star Excursion Balance Test (mSEBT), isometric knee extensor (KE) strength at 90° and 20° knee flexion and 6MWT. Muscle strength was measured using a Hand-held dynamometer. Correlation analysis was utilised to examine the relationship between variables using SPSS.

Results: the peak knee extensor strength was 137.8 (±41.9) Nm and 102.1 (±13.94) Nm at 90° and 20° respectively. A significant correlation (r=0.701, p<0.01) was noted between the 90° and 20° knee extensor strength measurements. A weak correlation was observed between KE strength and the composite value of the mSEBT (20°: r = 0.142, 90°: r = 0.159). The strongest correlation was between the anterior mSEBT direction and 20° KE (r=0.313). The correlations of 5RSTST and 30sSTST with 6MWT were both non-significant and weak (r=-0.218, p=0.296; r=0.140, p=0.504).

Conclusions: a measure of knee extensor strength at 20° might be a suitable alternative to the seated 90° test. A higher level of association between mSEBT scores for anterior direction and knee extensor strength highlights the importance of knee extensor muscles in maintaining balance. The 6MWT did not seem to be comparable with STS tests in young healthy adults. A larger sample involving different levels of activity is required to provide more conclusive evidence.

Impact: the correlations between functional tests noted in this study could provide healthcare professionals with greater insights into determining the appropriate, effective, and efficient physical performance tests for recreationally active young adults. The results could also serve as normative data for recreationally active young adults and provide comparative data against other population groups e.g., young adults with specific pathological conditions in clinical practice.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Dinesh Samuel

Download statistics