Affiliations: [a] Department of Sport and Exercise Science, Northumbria
University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK | [b] Water Research Group, School of Environmental Sciences
and Development, North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Note: [] Corresponding author: Duncan N. French, Department of Sport and
Exercise Science, Northumberland Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: BACKGROUND: There are few standardised assessments of unilateral
muscular endurance and little data examining the validity and reproducibility
of isokinetic unilateral muscular endurance performance measures. OBJECTIVE: To examine the validity and reproducibility of an
isokinetic assessment of lower limb unilateral muscular endurance performance. METHODS: Thirty individuals (15 endurance trained and 15
non-endurance trained) repeated a time to exhaustion (TTE) based endurance
protocol on separate days. Procedures were conducted on an isokinetic
dynamometer and involved leg extension through 135° of the dominant
leg. The TTE protocol required participants to perform unilateral isokinetic
leg extensions at 60% of individual maximal voluntary contraction (MVC)
until the specified intensity and frequency could not be maintained. RESULTS: The endurance trained individuals reached significantly
greater TTE than their non-endurance trained counterparts (P< 0.001).
Systemic bias was small (< 5%) and measures were similar between
trials. Test-retest reproducibility statistics were as follows; CV: 6.9%;
LOA −170.1 to 139.5; RLOA: −0.320 ×/÷ 0.257. Relative
reproducibility statistics were tight between trials (significant correlation
P< 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Data demonstrate the validity and tight test-retest reproducibility of the aforementioned assessment of unilateral
muscular endurance performance.
Keywords: Force production, unilateral, MVC, time to exhaustion, repeatability
