A PILOT STUDY: ACCELEROMETER AND RPE DATA REDUCTION METHODS MEASURING MUSCLE OSCILLATION WITH COMPRESSION GARMENTS?

Priya Leigh Giddens, Haley L. Gilbert, Andrew Craig-Jones. Augusta University, Augusta, GA. BACKGROUND. Compression garments have been increasing in popularity in several activities including running. These garments are used to compress the muscles to enhance recovery and performance by reducing muscle oscillations when striking the ground. Due to this nature of the benefits gained from garments it has been tied to enhancing performance in several activities. The purpose of this study was to explore data reduction methods of muscle oscillation (MO) and the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) during a 40-minute submaximal run. METHODS. A pilot study was conducted to assess feasibility of collecting acceleration data to analyze MO during running with compression garment. One female participant ran for 40 minutes while wearing compression garments (COMP) or loose-fitting shorts (CON). The participant selected a pace to run at for the trials by blindly increasing speed until they reached a comfortable training pace. She was equipped with accelerometers to track muscle oscillation on the anterior and posterior of thigh and shank. Data was recorded every 5minutes throughout the 40-minute run. RPE was measured using Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale and was collected at the same time as acceleration. Accelerometer data was reduced in two separate ways. Method 1 averaged the peak acceleration recorded during 5 strides for each data set collected. Method 2 performed an FFT and averaged amplitude across 0-60Hz for each data set. Both variables were averaged across all collections and compared between CON and COMP. Averages and percent reduction were assessed for feasibility of technique. RESULTS. Average MO of method 1 was reduced from 4.71g during CON to 4.03g during COMP, which is a total decrease of 14.4%. Average MO of method 2 was reduced from 39.9g during CON to 15.32g during COMP, which is a total decrease of 61.6%. Similarly, RPE was reduced from CON (10.5) and COMP (10.13). CONCLUSION. Upon assessing the results of the two methods of data reduction, it appears that using the FFT to assess a reduction in MO may overestimate the average amplitude. Using the maximal acceleration recorded of 5 strides seems more reliable data and produces a more reasonable difference in conditions. It also appears RPE can safely be collected and averaged across all timepoints to represent each 40-minute run