AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

The Shuttle System leg exercise machine, instrumented with force-sensing kickplates and a body position-sensing distance transducer, is a useful tool in measuring individual leg parameters in coordination with total body kinematics during jumping exercises. The Shuttle is more compact, more economical, creates lesser joint loads, and causes the subject to have longer contact times with kickplates than conventional jump analysis systems. 10 adult subjects were tested performing 4 different jumping exercises on both ground-based and Shuttle-based systems. Work performed in either system was roughly equivalent. Differences between launch and landing forces were not distinguishable in any ground-based test, but were distinguishable in several Shuttle-based tests. Minimal variation was observed between dominant and non-dominant leg performance in those with an observed bias. Peak forces correlated to impulses in some subjects but not in others, lending to the idea that this relationship may be critical in future studies to identify injury risk.