RELIABILITY AND GENERALIZABILITY OF CONSECUTIVE MAXIMUM CONTRACTIONS AS A TEST OF NEUROMUSCULAR FUNCTION 

Dejan Suzović, Aleksandar Nedeljković, Dragan Mirkov

DOI Number
-
First page
75
Last page
88

Abstract


The aim of the study was to explore the intra- and inter- session reliability, generalizability, as well as the factorial validity of the recently proposed novel test of neuromuscular function. Twelve participants took part in the first experiment, performing the standard strength test (SST) and a novel test based on consecutive maximum contractions (CMC) tests on the knee extensor muscle. Within the second experiment, additional 36 participants performed the SST and CMC tests on the knee and elbow flexor and extensor muscles. The obtained results for the SST and CMC revealed high day by day and test-retest reliability in most measured variables (ICC in the range of 0.80 - 0.92). The principal component analysis (PCA) applied on the SST variables revealed 3 factors that explained 81.2% of the non-normalized and 66.1% of the normalized data. The PCA applied on all 16 non-normalized variables of the CMC test revealed 3 factors that explained 80% of the total variance. Another PCA with the rate of force development and relaxation (RFD and RFR) normalized in regards  to the PF revealed 4 factors that explained 70.9% of the total variance. Non-normalized factors were not loaded with different muscle groups, but with variables of the same muscle group. After the applied normalization, the individual factors were loaded with the variables recorded from individual muscles. The results of the CMC suggest that the ability of the RFD and RFR could be partially independent. The CMC may be a feasible alternative to SST since it could assess the same strength properties from muscles through a single trial, based on a relatively low and transient force.


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