Document Type

Research Poster

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

The Problem

48.31 million Americans participated in running in 2023, with an injury incidence of 40.2% ± 18.8%

Objective biomechanical criteria for return to running (RTR) remain underdeveloped

Single-leg hop tests are among the most commonly used functional screens despite limited biomechanical validation for their correlation to running 2, 8, 10, 12, 14

The Biomechanical Rationale

Running propulsion depends on cyclical joint moments and positive power at the ankle, knee, and hip through rapid stretch-shortening cycles, a demand maximal discrete hop tests do not replicate ⁹

Repetitive single-leg pogo hopping shares the submaximal, rhythmic, cadence-dependent loading pattern of running 5, 6, 7

Riera et al. demonstrated a large correlation between leg stiffness during hopping and running, suggesting hopping may serve as a meaningful proxy for running behavior ⁴

No study has examined this relationship at the individual joint level

Purpose

To investigate whether peak joint moments and peak positive joint powers at the ankle, knee, and hip during single-leg pogo hopping correlate with those same variables during treadmill running across multiple speed and cadence conditions

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