Background: The risk of future injury appears to be influenced by agonist fascicle length
(FL), joint range of motion (ROM) and eccentric strength. Biomechanical observations of
the torque-angle-relationship further reveal a strong dependence on these factors. In
practice, a longer FL improves sprinting performance and lowers injury risk. Classical
stretching is a popular and evidenced-based training for enhancing ROM but does not
have any effects on FL and injury risk. However, recent studies show that eccentric-only
training (ECC) improves both flexibility and strength, and effectively lowers risk of injury.
Objectives: To review the evidence on benefits of ECC for flexibility and strength.
Methods: COCHRANE, PUBMED, SCOPUS, SPOLIT, and SPONET were searched for
laboratory trials that compare ECC to at least one comparison group. Studies were eligible
if they examined both strength and flexibility metrics in a healthy sample (<65 years) and
met criteria for controlled or randomized clinical trials (CCT, RCT). 18 studies have been
included and successfully rated using the PEDro scale.
Results: 16 of 18 studies show strong evidence of strength and flexibility enhancements
for the lower limb. While improvements between ECC and concentric training (CONC) were
similar for eccentric (+19 ± 10% vs. +19 ± 11%) and isometric strength (+16 ± 10% vs.
+13 ± 6%), CONC showed larger improvements for concentric strength (+9 ± 6% vs.
+16 ± 7%). While for ROM ECC showed improvements (+9 ± 7%), no results could be
found for CONC. The overall effectiveness of ECC seems to be higher than of CONC.
Conclusion: There is clear evidence that ECC is an effective method for changes in
muscle architecture, leading to both flexibility and strength improvements for the lower
limb. Due to limited data no shoulder study could be included. Further research is needed
for the upper body joints with a focus on functional and structural adaptions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:85824 |
| Date | 06 June 2023 |
| Creators | Vetter, Sebastian, Schleichardt, Axel, Köhler, Hans-Peter, Witt, Maren |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 873370 |
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