0000000000314062
AUTHOR
Luca Ruggiero
showing 3 related works from this author
Walking and Running Require Greater Effort from the Ankle than the Knee Extensor Muscles.
2016
The knee and ankle extensors as human primary antigravity muscle groups are of utmost importance in a wide range of locomotor activities. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how these muscle groups work, and specifically, how close to their maximal capacities they function across different modes and intensity of locomotion. Therefore, to advance our understanding of locomotor constraints, we determined and compared relative operating efforts of the knee and ankle extensors during walking, running, and sprinting.Using an inverse dynamics biomechanical analysis, the muscle forces of the knee and ankle extensors during walking (1.6 m·s), running (4.1 m·s), and sprinting (9.3 m·s) were quant…
Neural contribution to postactivation potentiation
2015
The current study was designed to investigate the contribution of neural factors to postactivation potentiation (PAP). Neuromuscular function (i.e. twitches, H-reflexes, motor evoked potentials, and voluntary isometric ballistic contractions) of 8 power-trained (POW) and 8 endurance-trained (END) athletes was recorded before and after a 8-second maximal isometric conditioning contraction (CC) to induce PAP, to elucidate discriminating neural factors in exploiting PAP that might arise from the former training background compared to the latter. After CC, twitch peak force and rate of force development were significantly increased, with higher potentiation in POW (29 ± 11% and 64 ± 24%) than E…
Ankle and knee extensor muscle effort during locomotion in young and older athletes : Implications for understanding age-related locomotor decline
2019
AbstractAge-related reduction in muscle force generation capacity is similarly evident across different lower limb muscle groups, yet decline in locomotor performance with age has been shown to depend primarily on reduced ankle extensor muscle function. To better understand why ageing has the largest detrimental effect on ankle joint function during locomotion, we examined maximal ankle and knee extensor force development during a two-leg hopping test in older and young men, and used these forces as a reference to calculate relative operating efforts for the knee and ankle extensors as participants walked, ran and sprinted. We found that, across locomotion modes in both age groups, ankle ex…