Does Cycling Training Reduce Quality of Functional Movement Motor Patterns and Dynamic Postural Control in Adolescent Cyclists? A Pilot Study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess whether cycling training may influence quality of functional movement patterns and dynamic postural control. We also sought to determine if the Functional Movement Screen and Lower Quarter Y-balance tests could be predictive of injury risk among adolescent road cyclists. Twenty-three male road cyclists, aged 15–18 years, were involved in the study. Quality of functional movement patterns was assessed using the Functional Movement Screen test (FMS). Dynamic postural control was evaluated using the Lower Quarter Y-balance test (YBT-LQ). Information on injury occurrence was collected through a retrospective survey. The results showed the highest percentage of scores equalling 0 and 1 (>30% in total) in two FMS component tests: the hurdle step and trunk stability push-up. The results also demonstrated a low injury predictive value of the Functional Movement Screen (cut-off <14/21 composite score) and the Lower Quarter Y-balance test (cut-off <94% composite score and >4 cm reach distance asymmetry) in adolescent road cyclists. The most important information obtained from this study is that youth road cyclists may have functional deficits within the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex and the trunk, while neither the FMS nor the YBT-LQ test are not recommended for injury risk screening in cyclists.

Do Hip and Ankle Strength as well as Range of Motion Predict Y-Balance Test - Lower Quarter Performance in Healthy Males?

“…According to De Noronha et al 14 , normalised posterolateral (PL) reaches <80% have been linked to increased risk of ankle sprains. However, there are also studies in which no association would be shown between YBT-LQ performance and risk of injury among athletes [15][16][17][18][19][20] . The findings of Lisman et al 20 allow to suggest that YBT-LQ is not connected with increased risk of lower limb injury in high-school athletes.…”

“…Furthermore, Lai et al 15 and Wright et al 16 also demonstrated that no reach asymmetry nor composite score can predict lower limb injury in collegiate athletes. Moreover, in some studies, it has been indicated the YBT-LQ to be a poor injury-predictive tool in specific sports populations such as American football 17 and basketball players 18 , or adolescent road cyclists 19 . Plisky et al 21 suggested that the reason of inter-population differences in YBT-LQ's predictive validity may be the lack of cut-off value adjustment.…”