Difference in ratio of evertor to invertor activity between the dominant and nondominant legs during simulated lateral ankle sprain.

CONTEXT: The dominant and nondominant legs respond asymmetrically during landing tasks, and this difference may occur during an inversion perturbation and provide insight into the role of ankle-evertor and -invertor muscle activity.

OBJECTIVE

To determine if there is a difference in the ratio of evertor to invertor activity between the dominant and nondominant legs and outer-sole conditions when the ankle is forced into inversion.

DESIGN

Repeated-measures single-group design.

SETTING

University laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS

15 physically active healthy volunteers with no previous history of an ankle sprain or lower extremity surgery or fracture.

INTERVENTIONS: An outer sole with fulcrum was used to cause 25° of inversion at the subtalar joint after landing from a 27-cm step-down task. Participants performed 10 fulcrum trials on both the dominant and nondominant leg.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The ratio of evertor to invertor muscle activity 200 ms before and 200 ms after the inversion perturbation was measured using electromyography. This ratio was the dependent variable. Independent variables included outer-sole condition (fulcrum, flat), leg (dominant, nondominant), and time (prelanding, postlanding). The data were analyzed with separate 2-way repeated-measures ANOVA, 1 for the prelanding ratios and 1 for the postlanding ratios.

RESULTS

For the postlanding ratios, the fulcrum outer sole had a significantly greater (P < .05) ratio than the flat outer sole, and the nondominant leg had a significantly greater (P < .05) ratio than the dominant leg.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that a greater evertor response is produced when the ankle is forced into inversion, and a greater response is produced for the nondominant leg, which may function better during a postural-stabilizing task than the dominant leg.