Vertical Ground Reaction Force Asymmetry in Prolonged Running

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the asymmetry of vertical ground reaction force (GRF) components between dominant and non-dominant legs in rested and fatigued states in prolonged running. Method: Twenty healthy men, heel strikers, were included (age: $24.00{\pm}5.0years$; height: $176.1{\pm}6.0cm$; body mass: $69.0{\pm}6.0kg$) in this study. Subjects ran on an instrumented treadmill for 130 minutes. During treadmill running, GRF data (1,000 Hz) were collected for 20 strides at five minutes (rested) and 125 minutes (fatigued) running while they were unaware of collecting data. Asymmetry indexes (ASI) were calculated to quantify the asymmetry magnitude in rested and fatigued states. Paired t-test was used to verify the differences between dominant and non-dominant legs in rested and fatigued states. In addition, one-way repeated measure analysis of variance was applied for comparison of ASI of both states. The level of significance was set at p < .05. Results: Passive force peak magnitude, loading rate, and impulse affecting the development of running injury were found significantly greater in dominant leg than in non-dominant leg at rested state (p < .05). However, passive force peak time and active force peak magnitude were found significantly different between legs in fatigued state (p < .05). To determine changes in percentage of asymmetry between legs in both states, ASI was used. ASI for all variables increased in fatigued state; however, no significant differences were found between both states. Conclusion: This study found that fatigue did not affect differences in vertical GRF between dominant and non-dominant legs and asymmetry changes.