The effects of a 9-week hip focused weight training program on hip and knee kinematics and kinetics in amateur and professional dancers

The aim of this study was to see if a 9-week hip dominant weight training intervention would increase hip kinematics (NJM) and kinetics (JAV), and lead to improvement in CMJ. Twenty-two professional and amateur dancers were separated into an intervention (IG) (age 24.4±6.3, height 165.5±5.8 cm, weight 65.9±5.6 kg) and control (CG) (age 22.9±5.6, height 163.3±5.4 cm, weight 57.4 ± 6.8 kg) group. The IG participated in a 9-week hip dominant training intervention, which consisted of a wide-stance back squat, Romanian-deadlift, hip-thrusters and a bent-over-row. A mixed-design two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was used to assess changes in hip and knee kinematics and kinetics, and CMJ. A Pearsons correlation was used to assess if an increase in hip NJM and JAV correlated to CMJ improvement. Significant findings (p≤0.05) were observed for time*group effect in hip NJM in propulsion and CMJ. No significant differences were observed for time*group for propulsion and landing for kinematics and kinetics. A weak and non-significant correlation (R = .453) was found between CMJ increase and hip NJM in propulsion. The data supports the use of a hip dominant weight training strategy to improve hip contribution in the propulsion phase. Additionally, it was found to be an effective method of increasing CMJ height. In the landing phase, data suggests that alternative methods may need to be applied. The strength and conditioning specialist should look to incorporate hip dominant weight training exercises to facilitate hip strength and improve performance.