Trunk exercise speed has significant effects on neuro-mechanical demands; however, the influence of a variety of exercise speeds on motor control of the trunk displacement remains unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of performance speed on trunk motion control during the curl-up exercise by analyzing the kinematic variance about the sagittal trajectory. Seventeen subjects volunteered to perform curl-ups at different cadences controlled by a metronome. Standard deviation (SD) and range (RG) of shoulder girdle medial-lateral displacement (SGML) and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) of SGML were calculated to examine linear variability and long range autocorrelation of medial-lateral upper trunk displacements, respectively. In addition, SD, RG and DFA of centre of pressure medial-lateral displacement (COPML) were performed to analyze the behavior of the motor system while controlling trunk displacement. Although SD and RG of COPML increased as speed increased, the curl-up cadence did not have significant effects on SD and RG of SGML. These results suggest that although high speed curl-ups challenged participants’ ability to carry out medial-lateral adjustments, an increase of performance speed did not modify the linear variability about the sagittal trajectory. Regarding DFA, the scaling exponent α of SGML and COPML was higher for the fastest movements, mainly in long term fluctuations. Therefore, to maintain the target trajectory, participants used different strategies depending on performance speed. This is to say, there were less trajectory changes when participants performed the fastest exercises.
The execution variability and outcomes found in throwing actions have received special attention in numerous studies in recent years. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of an unstable condition on velocity, accuracy and kinematics of movement in the seven metres throw in handball. Twenty-five young handball players took part in an experiment, throwing towards a target on a stable and an unstable surface. Each participant performed 32 throws, 16 for each situation. Linear variability of the dominant hand was assessed by 3D Motion Tracking. A radar sports gun was used to record the velocity of the ball and the throws were video recorded to establish their accuracy. Results showed significant decreases in throwing velocity in unstable conditions, but these did not significantly affect the accuracy achieved in performance. Differences were also found in movement kinematics between the two throwing conditions and relationships were found between kinematics, velocity and accuracy.
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