Asymmetry of inter-joint coordination patterns and variability between dominant and non-dominant legs during landing in young healthy adults: a cross-sectional study

Background Landing movement usually challenges motor control and causes lower limb injuries. Although asymmetries in landing biomechanics between the dominant and the non-dominant sides have been observed, the side-to-side differences in inter-joint coordination patterns and variability during landing are not fully understood. Methods This study included 41 healthy young adults (21 females/20 males, age: 26.1 ± 5.5 years) who performed single-leg drop landings with inter-joint coordination patterns and variability being assessed. Modified vector coding was applied to calculate the coordination patterns and variability based on hip-knee sagittal, knee-ankle sagittal, knee sagittal-ankle frontal, and knee-ankle frontal coupling pairs. The coordination patterns were classified into in-phase with proximal, in-phase with distal, anti-phase with proximal and anti-phase with distal dominance. Paired-sample t-test was used to compare the limb differences. Results Compared with the non-dominant side, the dominant side presented lower coordination variability (24.78 ± 7.37˚ vs. 27.47 ± 6.70˚, p = 0.044) in hip-knee sagittal coupling pair. The non-dominant side displayed higher frequency of anti-phase with distal dominance pattern in knee sagittal-ankle frontal coupling pair (27.25 ± 5.99% vs. 23.89 ± 5.13%, p = 0.020) when compared with the dominant side. Conclusion Our results suggested that the dominant side tends to display more stable hip-knee sagittal coupling on the dominant side and ankle dominance modulation in knee sagittal-ankle frontal coupling on the non-dominant side. These distinct coordination profiles align with documented clinical trends reporting a higher prevalence of knee-related pathologies on the dominant side and an increased presence of ankle instability on the non-dominant side.