Background: The aim of this study was to investigate whether lateral differences in the cross-sectional areas of the hip and thigh muscles were related to curve sprinting time.
Methods: Thirteen college students (10 men and 3 women; mean ± SD: age, 20.4 ± 1.7 years; height, 167.6 ± 8.9 cm; mass, 57.4 ± 5.4 kg) participated in this study. The participants were instructed to sprint along a circular track (23 m radius) in the counterclockwise and clockwise directions. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the cross-sectional area of the psoas major, quadriceps femoris, and hamstring muscles. The symmetry index was used to evaluate the lateral differences in the cross-sectional area.
Results: The lateral difference was observed in the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the thigh muscles, not in the psoas major muscle. The sprint time was not significantly different between the counterclockwise (22.15 ± 2.27 s) and clockwise (22.13 ± 2.32 s) directions. No significant correlations were found between the symmetry index of the thigh muscles and the cross-directional differences in sprint time. However, the symmetry index of the psoas major muscle correlated significantly with the cross-directional difference in sprint time (r = -0.614, P = 0.026).
Conclusions: These findings suggest that the participants in whom the cross-sectional area of the psoas major muscle of the outer leg was larger than that of the inner leg were faster in curve sprinting.