Background and Aim: Lateral ankle sprains are one of the most prevalent injuries in high school, college, and recreational sports. The risk of repeat injury increases when hip musclesʼ strength alters in female athletes with a history of ankle sprain due to distal injury. The purpose of this study was to make a comparison between hip muscle isometric strength of injured and healthy legs in female collegiate athletes with a history of inversion ankle sprains.

Material and Material: Twenty subjects (age 22.5 ± 2 years, weight 64.24 ± 10.45 kg, height 163.85 ± 5.2 cm) with a history of at least 2 unilateral ankle inversion sprains in the previous three months participated in this study. Demographic data of the subjects were recorded in the questionnaires, and then the measurement protocol began. At the same time, the participants' uninvolved limbs were regarded as our control group. Hand held dynamometer (model 01160 Nicholas) used to assess hip abductor and extensor muscle strength in both limbs. We used paired t-test to compare hip muscle strength between injured and unaffected limbs.

Results: The results of strength tests indicated lower mean values of hip abductor and extensor muscle strength in the injured limb compared to the uninjured limb, but no significant difference was noted in the hip muscle strength between the different sides. Although the athletes had history of inversion ankle sprain, they did not show any decrease in the hip abductor and extensor muscle strength.

Conclusion: This study showed that exercise experiences can compensate for the probable weaknesses of hip muscle strength in the injured limbs. 

Keywords: Ankle sprain, Female athletes, Hip abductor muscles strength.

Received: Oct 8, 2014      Accepted: Sep 7, 2015

Background and Aim: Status abnormalities are adverse changes which can cause deformity in the skeletal structure and the natural direction of the posture. Obesity is among the causes of status abnormalities. The important issue is the distribution of additional fat in the body. The aim of this study was to compare muscle and skeletal abnormalities between the students with apple-shaped and pear-shaped obesity.

Material and Methods: Study population included all male high-school students in Sanandaj. 79 students were selected by purposeful cluster sampling and divided into three groups: apple-shaped obesity (n=21), pear-shaped obesity (n=23), and normal weight (n=34).In order to assess abnormalities, we used photography for forward head and forward shoulder, flexible ruler for kyphosis and lordosis, caliper for genu valgum and genovarum, and navicular drop test for flatfoot. Using SPSS22 software, data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). P < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: We found significant differences between every two groups in regard to different abnormalities as following: forward head (P ≤ 0.012) and forward shoulder (P ≤ 0.001) between normal and apple-shaped obesity groups, lordosis  between apple-shaped and pear-shaped obesity groups (P ≤ 0.047), and also between normal and apple-shaped obesity groups (P ≤ 0.046), genovarum (P ≤ 0.0001) between normal and pear-shaped obesity groups and also between normal and apple-shaped obesity groups (P ≤ 0.0001); flatfoot (P ≤ 0.0001) between normal and pear-shaped obesity groups (P ≤ 0.0001) and also between apple-shaped and normal groups (P ≤ 0.0001).

Conclusion: Apple and pear-shaped obesity have different effects on the stature structure and rate of complications. We recommend corrective exercise training programs and weight control in obese subjects according to the type of obesity.

Keywords: Obesity, Apple-shaped obesity, Pear-shaped obesity, Fat distribution, Musculoskeletal abnormalities.

Received: Jul 4, 2016      Accepted: Oct 29, 2016