Effect of Injury Prevention Training with Global Systems Approach on Kinetics and Trunk and Lower Extremity Kinematics during Jump Landing in Active Individuals at Risk of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury: Quasi-Experimental Study

Injury prevention training using a global systems approach has been suggested to reduce biomechanical risk factors for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries during landing. This study aimed to compare a traditional injury prevention program to injury prevention training using a global systems approach on trunk and lower extremity kinematics and kinetics during a single-leg cross drop task in athletes at risk of ACL injury.

Thirty-nine male and female athletes (control = 19 and injury prevention training using a global systems approach = 20) participated in this study. Peak knee and hip flexion, peak knee abduction, lateral trunk flexion angles, peak knee abduction moment, and peak vertical ground reaction forces (GRF) were assessed for all participants during a single-leg cross drop task at baseline and six weeks following injury prevention training. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate the biomechanical data between-group differences.

A significant group × time interaction effect was found for peak vertical GRF (P = 0.007), peak knee abduction moment (P < 0.001), knee abduction (P = 0.006), and lateral trunk flexion (P = 0.036), favoring the global systems approach group at six weeks. Significant main effects of time were found for the vertical GRF, knee abduction moment, hip flexion, knee flexion, knee abduction, and lateral trunk flexion (P < 0.001) after the training. No significant group × time interaction effects were found for hip flexion (P = 0.734) and knee flexion (P = 0.103).

Global systems approach improved the biomechanical risk factors for ACL injuries during single-leg cross drop landing compared to thigh-focused exercises.