KINETIC COMPARISON BETWEEN HIGH-IMPACT AND LOW-IMPACT STEP AEROBIC DANCES

Step aerobic dance is one of the most popular aerobic exercises. There are two kinds of aerobic dances, high-impact (HI) and low-impact (LI). High-impact aerobic dance is defined as the exercise involving bouncing, hopping or jumping in which both feet are often taken off the ground. Low-impact aerobic dance is defined as the exercise in which there is always one foot on the ground during the exercise. One of the major causes of sports injury in aerobic dance is overuse injuries of the lower extremity (60%; Francis et al., 1985; Mutoh et al., 1988). This high injury rate in aerobic dance may be due to the repetitive, high joint loads in the lower extremities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of impact level on the joint kinetics of lower limb in step aerobic dance