Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Dynamic hip stabiliz-ers are essential for optimal performance in foot-ball players, particularly during kicking. Although the muscle strength deficits of hip muscles as an etiology of osteitis pubis (OP) in football players have not yet been well investigated, previous as-sessments give more attention to the concentric mode of strength for both hip flexor and exten-sor muscles. Functionally, the hip muscles inter-act in an eccentric/concentric pattern. This study aimed to compare the concentric, eccentric, and eccentric antagonist/concentric agonist ratios for hip flexor and extensor strength between foot-ball players with OP and healthy athletes.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty-four male footballers with OP and eighteen healthy foot-ballers were tested using an isokinetic dyna-mometer at a speed of 180 degrees/s.
RESULTS: Football players with osteitis pu-bis demonstrated a significantly lower eccentric extensor/concentric flexor ratio and higher ec-centric hip flexor/extensor ratio (p < 0.05) when compared with healthy participants.
CONCLUSIONS: The present study demon-strated that football players with OP had a re-duced capability to produce eccentric hip ex-tension torque compared to healthy athletes. Consequently, the eccentric rather than the con-centric weakness of hip extensors could be sug-gested as one of the intrinsic contributing fac-tors for OP. Incorporating findings of the current study in clinical practice could afford critical in-formation while evaluating the hip muscles in football players with OP for pre-screening, de-veloping rehabilitation programs, and guiding the decision to return to sports after injury.