Can gluteal muscle activation discriminate functional performance in moderately trained women?-A cross-sectional study

This study verified whether the level of gluteal activation during a controlled maximum voluntary contraction may discriminate functional performance in women. Forty-five moderately trained women were assigned to two groups based on the level of gluteal muscle activation on maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) tests in the dominant limb: higher gluteal activation (HG-n = 22) and lower gluteal activation (LG-n = 22), considering different situations: a) level of activation of the gluteus medius muscle (GMed), b) level of activation of the gluteus maximus muscle (GMax), and c) level of combined activation of the GMed and GMax muscles. The cut-off values for the allocation of participants to groups in each situation were established as a function of the median values of each data set. Functional performance was assessed using the shuttle run, triple hop test, and six-metre timed hop test (STHT). The level of significance was set at 5%. Cohen's d index was included to estimate the magnitude of existing differences. The HG showed significantly shorter times than the LG on STHT performance (p-values ranging from 0.03-0.04), with a moderate effect (Cohen's d = 0.60-0.68) in all situations. The level of gluteal activation could discriminate STHT performance in women.