EAPSI: Quantifying Biomechanical and Muscular Changes Due to Fatigue in Young Male and Female Runners of Varying Pubertal Status

青少年长跑运动员及其受伤的研究还不够充分，特别是与现有的和正在进行的关于成年长跑运动员的研究相比。身体疲劳和过度使用损伤会产生持久的影响，增加医疗费用，并使年轻运动员无法保持身体活动。这项调查的结果将应用于青少年发展和活动，并将导致对不同性别和不同成熟水平的长跑运动员的生物力学有更丰富的理解。拟议中的研究将利用dr。约翰·克罗宁和乔恩·奥利弗？在奥克兰科技大学运动表现研究所对青年和青少年运动员进行的一项研究中，将产生一个更全面的生物力学、神经力学和成长中的运动员疲劳之间相互作用的图景。本研究旨在分析不同成熟状态的男女长跑运动员的生物力学和神经肌肉控制因疲劳而发生的变化。这项研究将得出肌肉活动、腿部僵硬度和步幅随疲劳变化的概况，因为这些都可以预测受伤。为了实现这一目标，将在跑步机上进行训练时收集运动和运动学数据。将使用肌电图和力测量来比较跑步前后的腿部僵硬度和肌肉活动。本研究的潜在用途包括建立生物力学风险预测模型，为青春期跑步的安全量和频率提供指导。所采用的方法也可以扩展到其他运动中，如棒球等过度使用损伤很常见的年轻运动员。NSF EAPSI奖是与新西兰皇家学会合作资助的。

Youth long distance runners and their injuries have been understudied, particularly when compared to the amount of existing and ongoing research regarding adult runners. Physical burnout and overuse injuries can have a lasting effect, contributing to medical costs and preventing young athletes from remaining physically active. The findings of this investigation will have applications across youth development and activity, and will lead to a richer understanding of the biomechanics of long distance runners between genders and across maturational levels. The proposed research will capitalize on Drs. John Cronin and Jon Oliver?s study of youth and adolescent athletes at the Sports Performance Research Institute of the Auckland University of Technology, and will generate a more holistic picture of the interaction between biomechanics, neuromechanics, and fatigue in growing athletes.This study aims to analyze changes due to fatigue in the biomechanics and neuromuscular control of male and female long distance runners of varying maturational status. This research will result in a profile of how muscle activity, leg stiffness, and stride length change with fatigue, as these can all be predictors of injury. To achieve this goal, kinetic and kinematic data will be collected during a training run on a treadmill. Leg stiffness and muscle activity will be compared before and after runs using EMG and force measurements. Potential uses of this research include a biomechanical risk prediction model to provide guidelines for safe volume and frequency of running by pubertal stage. The methods employed can also be extended to protect young athletes in other sports where overuse injuries are common, such as baseball. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Royal Society of New Zealand.