Jurga Indriūnienė, Alvydas Juocevičius, Ieva Eglė Jamontaitė, Inga Muntianaitė
Abstract
Women’s absolute strength in various muscular groups starts to decrease earlier and is less than men’s during all life stages. That is why it is very important to timely define changes of women’s muscle functional status and to choose an effective training program that would help to restore muscle strength, endurance and intercoordination. Methods: the research included 100 randomly selected 18 – 22 year-old women (mean age – 20,56 ± 1,40 y). Women were randomly subdivided into control (n = 50), first (n = 25), second (n = 25) groups. The women from the control group were observed during the research period without their inclusion into the training program. The first group performed traditional strength exercising program, the second group performed isokinetic training program to improve their knee flexors and extensors status. All the women were evaluated in the beginning and the end of the training program. Results: both traditional strength exercises and isokinetic training program improved the women’s knee flexors’ strength in comparison with the control group (p < 0,05). In the second group of the studied after isokinetic training program knee flexors’ strength increased in 16,64 % in non-dominating leg and 18,50 % in dominating leg (p < 0,05). After traditional strength exercising program of the first group women, there was 9 % increase of dominating leg muscle strength. Isokinetic training also improved knee flexors’ endurance: in non-dominating leg 39,77 %, in dominating leg – 33,52 % (p < 0,05). The dominating leg’s muscle endurance of the first group women, who performed traditional strength exercising program, increased in 9,50 % (p < 0,05). During the study, the non-dominating leg endurance index of the control group women decreased. Conclusions: isokinetic training was more effective than traditional strength exercises and the indexes of knee flexors’ strength and endurance increased more significantly. After isokinetic training, muscle strength increased in 18,50 %, endurance – 39,77 %.
Keyword(s): isokinetic training; muscle strength; muscle endurance
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2016.038
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