Decreased Hip Strength Leads to Altered Dynamic Motion Biomechanics in Healthy Female Athletes

Freemyer, B, Takata, A, Kim, Y, and Stickley, C. Decreased hip strength leads to altered dynamic motion biomechanics in healthy female athletes. J Strength Cond Res 40(4): 414-421, 2026-The posterolateral hip muscles are essential for tasks that require dynamic ability. Weakness is associated with abnormal motions and with increased injury risk, but dynamic task performance in healthy female athletes with decreased strength is unknown. The purpose was to compare the 3-dimensional biomechanics of the drop vertical jump landing (DVJ) and side-cutting tasks across varying hip strength capabilities in healthy female athletes. Forty-six female athletes (height = 1.6 ± 0.08 m, body mass = 58.3 ± 11.9 kg, age = 16.3 ± 3.6 years) had isometric hand-held dynamometry evaluated during hip external rotation, abduction, and extension and then were categorized into low, medium, and high strength groups. Statistical parametric mapping ANOVA compared the 3-dimensional biomechanical differences between groups during the first landing of a DVJ and a side-cutting maneuver across ground contact at an alpha level of p ≤ 0.05. Strength was different between the groups across the 3 measures (all < p < 0.001, hip external rotation ηp 2 = 0.70, hip abduction ηp 2 = 0.68, and hip extension ηp 2 = 0.38). The low strength group displayed decreases of 13° in hip flexion during first half of ground contact (< p < 0.001) and then approximately 9.7° of knee flexion ( p = 0.017) and 7.6° of anterior pelvic tilt ( p = 0.039) during the second half of ground contact vs. the stronger groups. There were no differences in side-cutting biomechanics for any of the variables studied. Clinicians should be aware that decreased strength affects the DVJ more than side cutting, and the DVJ should be considered for those looking to assess the ability of the posterolateral hip muscles for sport performance and injury prevention.