ABSTRACT

The use of isokinetic dynamometers for the assessment of muscle function, in terms of peak joint torque (PT) and angle at peak torque(APT), is now common. The data being used to aid diagnosis of injury and to monitor rehabilitation as well as being a popular tool for training and assessing sports performers (Clarys and Cabri, 1992). Many uses of isokinetic systems require the repeated measurement of subjects over time. The changes in performance being attributed to training/rehabiliation programmes followed by the subject. (Clarys and Cabri, 1991;Fowler and Reiily, 1993). However many of these studies fail to recognise the inter-trial variability inherent in such measures and may thus draw false conclusions from their data.