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Article
Acute and chronic effects of aquatic treadmill training on land treadmill running kinematics: A cross-over and single-subject design approach
Journal of Sports Sciences
  • Eadric Bressel, Utah State University
  • Talin J. Louder, Utah State University
  • James P. Hoover, Utah State University
  • Luce C. Roberts, Utah State University
  • Dennis G. Dolny, Utah State University
Document Type
Article
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Publication Date
11-17-2016
Disciplines
Abstract

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.

Citation Information
Bressel, E., Louder, T., Hoover, J., Roberts, L., Dolny, D. (2017). Acute and chronic effects of aquatic treadmill training on land treadmill running kinematics: A cross-over and single-subject design approach. Journal of Sports Sciences. 35, 2105-2113. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2016.1256493.