Spatiotemporal analysis of 3D kinematic asymmetry in professional cycling during an incremental test to exhaustion

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the influence of an incremental exercise on bilateral asymmetry through the spatio-temporal evolution of 3D joint angular displacement, using the Normalized Symmetry Index () and cross-correlation methods. Twelve professional cyclists performed an incremental test to exhaustion, during which motion capture was used. Results revealed a decrease in range of motion between the first and last stages for twelve of the eighteen joint rotations, with the highest impact observed for right hip flexion/extension (61.8 ± 4.7° to 58.8 ± 4.1°, p < 0.05, ES = 0.68). For both stages, significant bilateral differences greater than 10° were observed for hip and knee flexion/extension (p < 0.05, ES>0.90) and ankle and hip internal/external rotation (p < 0.05, ES>0.25). Cross-correlation displayed the lowest pattern similarities for hip abduction/adduction and the highest similarities for knee flexion/extension, ankle plantarflexion/dorsiflexion and hip internal/external rotation. The cross-correlation method showed that the right leg was mostly ahead of time with respect to the left leg, a trend that was accentuated with power output increase. Instantaneous fluctuated up to 18% throughout the pedalling cycle, with different behaviour between the power and recovery phases. This study demonstrated the workload effects on side-to-side joint angular pattern similarity.

KEYWORDS:

• Kinematic asymmetry
• cycling
• incremental test

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the “Bretagne Séché Environnement” UCI pro cycling Team for their participation in the present study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by French National Institute of Sport (INSEP) under Grant 12-R25. C. Pouliquen was supported by PhD scholarship of the Region Bretagne. No relevant financial relationship exists.