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A biomechanical evaluation of the combined elevation test

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posted on 2016-11-25, 11:53 authored by Sam AllenSam Allen, Gemma C. Phillips, Steve J. McCaig
Objectives: To biomechanically evaluate the relationships between the outcome of the Combined Elevation Test, its component joint motions, and thoracic spine angles. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Laboratory. Participants: 18 elite swimmers and triathletes (11 males and 7 females). Main outcome measures: Combined Elevation Test outcome in forehead and chin positions. Individual joint contributions to test outcome. Results: No sex differences were found in test components, or between head positions. Test outcome was greater in the forehead position than the chin position (34.3 cm vs 30.2 cm; p<0.001). The variables most strongly associated with test outcome were glenohumeral joint flexion (r = 0.86 – 0.97; p<0.001), and shoulder retraction (r = 0.75 - 0.82; p<0.001). Total thoracic spine angle related strongly to test outcome in females (r = -0.77 – -0.88; p<0.05), but not in males (r = -0.17 – -0.24; p>0.05). Conclusions: The Combined Elevation Test is an effective screening tool to measure upper limb mobility into shoulder flexion and scapula retraction in both sexes, and thoracic extension in women. It is recommended that the test be performed in the forehead position. If a subject performs poorly on the test, follow up assessments are required to identify the impairment location.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

Physical Therapy in Sport

Citation

ALLEM, S.J., PHILLIPS, G.C. and MCCAIG, S.J., 2017. A biomechanical evaluation of the combined elevation test. Physical Therapy in Sport, 25, pp.1-8.

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2016-11-10

Publication date

2017

Notes

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Physical Therapy in Sport and the definitive published version us available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2016.11.001.

ISSN

1873-1600

Language

  • en

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