Musculoskeletal Asymmetry in Football Athletes

Abstract

Asymmetries were evident in athletes as a product of limb function over time. Chronic exposure to routine high-impact gravitational loads afforded to the support limb preferentially improved bone mass and structure (cross-sectional area and cortex thickness) as potent contributors to bone strength relative to the high-magnitude muscular loads predominantly afforded to the kicking limb.

Intensive terrestrial or marine locomotor strategies are associated with inter‐ and intra‐limb bone functional adaptation in living female athletes

“…The different mechanisms through which bone mass and safety factors are balanced within the limb are consistent enough that a pattern has emerged in the literature across various species, by which mechanical strain is accommodated through enhanced internal trabecular bone structure in epiphyses, and through enhanced external size and strength in diaphyseal regions (Barak, Lieberman, & Hublin, ; Kivell, ; Matarazzo, ; Mittra, Rubin, & Qin, ; Polk, Blumenfeld, & Ahluwalia, ; Pontzer et al, ; Ryan & Shaw, ; Welch, ). This pattern is also consistently documented among living human athletes (Ducher, Prouteau, Courteix, & Benhamou, ; Hart et al, ; Heinonen et al, ; Heinonen, Sievänen, Kannus, Oja, & Vuori, ; Ireland et al, ; Izard et al, ; Kontulainen, Sievänen, Kannus, Pasanen, & Vuori, ; Nikander, Sievänen, Uusi‐Rasi, Heinonen, & Kannus, ; Weatherholt & Warden, ). However, evidence of this pattern in the lower limb bones among living humans has been established predominantly from the tibia, extending occasional to the distal femoral epiphysis.…”

“…However, the interaction of training duration and its timing is complex; among male racquet‐sport athletes, accounting for training duration eliminated significant differences in humeral TA between pre‐ and peri‐pubertal players (Ducher, Daly, & Bass, ). Similarly, in the tibia, elite young adult male soccer players who had been training for more than 3 years had significantly higher TA and CA than players with fewer years of training (Hart et al, ). Our results suggest that more work is needed to understand the interaction between loading duration and timing relative to menarche on bone structure among women in particular.…”

“…Biomechanical analyses in bioarchaeology and paleoanthropology frequently seek to infer human behavior in the past from between‐group differences in limb bone cross‐sectional geometric (CSG) properties, reflecting both diaphyseal areas and the radial distribution of bone (Macintosh, Davies, Pinhasi, & Stock, ; Macintosh, Pinhasi, & Stock, ; Macintosh, Pinhasi, & Stock, ; Ruff et al, ). The conclusions drawn are based upon relationships between cortical bone area and compressive strength, and between cortical bone distribution and bending/torsional rigidity (Ruff, ) that are supported by the clinical literature (Hart et al, ; Hind, Gannon, Whatley, Cooke, & Truscott, ; Izard, Fraser, Negus, Sale, & Greeves, ; Nikander et al, ; Rantalainen, Nikander, Daly, Heinonen, & Sievänen, ; Rantalainen, Nikander, Heinonen, Suominen, & Sievänen, ; Weatherholt & Warden, ). Similarly, evidence of trabecular bone variation in response to loading among living athletes (Best, Holt, Troy, & Hamill, ; Heinonen, Sievänen, Kyröläinen, Perttunen, & Kannus, ; Modlesky, Majumdar, & Dudley, ; Schipilow, Macdonald, Liphardt, Kan, & Boyd, ), in combination with modern imaging methods, has begun to enable the study of complex three‐dimensional structural changes in epiphyseal trabecular bone from a locomotor perspective (Chirchir, Ruff, Junno, & Potts, ; Chirchir, Zeininger, Nakatsukasa, Ketcham, & Richmond, ; Matarazzo, ; Ryan & Shaw, ; Saers, Cazorla‐Bak, Shaw, Stock, & Ryan, ; Shaw & Ryan, ; Tsegai et al, ).…”

Comparison of Drop Jump and Tuck Jump Knee Joint Kinematics in Elite Male Youth Soccer Players: Implications for Injury Risk Screening

“…Speculatively, this trend may be due to the development of asymmetries in functional properties (e.g. muscular strength), which have been identified previously in Australian Football League athletes32 .…”

Vertical and Horizontal Asymmetries Are Related to Slower Sprinting and Jump Performance in Elite Youth Female Soccer Players

“…All of the aforementioned methods have been shown to be sensitive when identifying differences between limbs in both athlete and non-athlete populations. Furthermore, it has been stated that inter-limb asymmetries may be a product of the time spent competing in the same sport (18,20).…”