Asymmetries

High intensity dynamic unilateral movements such as changing directions, jumping, kicking, etc. are characteristic of the basic movements in many sports. As such, it’s common for the competitive athlete to develop asymmetric neuromuscular adaptations. While some asymmetries are expected, the point at which they may become problematic for an individual athlete is worthy of investigating. 

Accordingly, inter-limb asymmetries have been a frequent area of research lately, especially in the context of injuries (Bishop et al, 2018; DosSantos et al., 2017; Maszczyk et al., 2018). Causative reasons for non-contact injury in sport are multifactorial considering many elements at play, e.g., terrain, gender, workloads, experience, etc., yet functional inter-limb asymmetries may also underlie a subtle decrement in performance. Recent research has demonstrated asymmetries in force or power in unilateral jumping may be detrimental to athletic performance (Arboix-Alio et al., 2020; Madruga-Parera et al., 2019).

 For these reasons, athletes and their coaches should assess and monitor asymmetries over the course of the seasons to possibly avert injuries, responsibly return to play if there is an interruption and promote an athlete’s best overall performance. With technological advances in wearables, jump mats, force plates, and other expensive clinical equipment are no longer necessary to capture this valuable data. These wearables permit easy, frequent and accurate assessments which may identify critical performance and biomechanical asymmetries. Interpretation of the data is also facilitated with integrated software and movement specialists. 

Take a leap and let the science help you!