Runners with a history of injury have greater lower limb movement regularity than runners without a history of injury.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the regularity of the lower limb joint kinematics in runners with and without a history of running-related injuries. The second aim was to verify if the movement pattern regularities are different among the lower limb joints. Eighteen asymptomatic recreational runners with and without a history of running-related injury participated in this study. Lower limb kinematics in the sagittal plane were recorded during running on a treadmill at a self-selected speed. The regularities of the time series of hip, knee, and ankle were analysed using sample entropy (SampEn). A mixed analysis of variance was used to investigate differences between groups and among joints. Runners with a history of injury had lower SampEn values than runners without a history of injury. Ankle kinematics SampEn was higher than that of the knee and hip. Knee kinematics had higher values of SampEn than that of the hip. Runners with a history of running-related injury had greater joint kinematic's regularity. This result suggests that, even in asymptomatic runners, previous injuries could influence the movement pattern regularity. Also, the regularity was different among joints. The ankle demonstrated the lowest regularity, reinforcing the different functions that lower limb joints perform during running.