Abstract :
The mechanisms of the lower limb altered mechanics are still not clearly understood, however, lower limb mechanics and the increase of knee valgus on loaded tasks are believed to play an important role in the development of knee disorders, and this could be affected by body balance after landing from a hop or squatting task. The aim of this study was to figure out if balance tasks including time to stabilization and sway area would have an effect on knee valgus angle during single-leg squat and single-leg horizontal hop for distance tasks in healthy participants. This study also investigated if there are differences found between the dominant and non-dominant limbs in all tests. Twenty-eight recreationally male athletes were participated in the study. The measurements of their performance during all tests were taken for both legs individually. The participants were asked to participate in two different tests, the first test was the balance test which include three different tests, two static tests to measure the sway area and one dynamic test to measure TTS. The second test was to examine knee valgus angle from two different tasks (single-leg squat and single-leg horizontal hop landing). The non-dominant leg had significantly greater knee valgus angles and lower balance performance than the dominant leg in all tasks. No significant correlations were found between balance and knee valgus tests in all tasks (P ≥ 0.05). However, there are significant differences found between the dominant and non-dominant limbs for all tests (P ≤ 0.05). No correlations were found between balance performance and knee valgus angle. Differences were found between the dominant and non-dominant limbs, the dominant had better outcome measures in all tests. More attention should be considered for the non-dominant limb during rehabilitation to balance its performance with the dominant.
