Andrija Atanasković, Vladimir Mutavdžić, Martin Georgiev

When a sudden flexion of the lumbar disk, a hernia, occurs, usually in the posterolateral direction, the consequence may be muscular weakness of the lower extremities. The aim of the study was to determine how and in what way hernias affect the strength and endurance of leg and torso muscles among athletes without clinical symptoms of neurological and muscle weakness. The study included 20 male subjects without clinically present motor weaknesses in the lower extremities. The respondents were athletes, aged 28.70 ± 3.22, weight 76.25 ± 4.78 kg, height of 184.35 ± 5.67 cm. They were divided into two groups: the first group (K) of 10 respondents and a completely healthy group, and (E) which included patients with disc hernia. Within the Myotest-m and CMJ, the following variables n were obtained: height (cm), power (W/kg), force (N/kg), acceleration (cm/s); 1RM-maximum weight in one repetition of the thrust legs (kg), repetitive leg strength (REPC), flexion (REPF), trunk extension (REPE). In order to determine the difference in arithmetic means of the respondents, analysis of variance with one factor was used (ANOVA) and multiple analyses of variance (MANOVA). Statistically significant differences exist in the variables of explosive strength p ≤ 0.001, while the repetitive strength of trunk and legs, maximum power has no differences p> 0.005. This suggests intergroup differences in the variables of explosive strength in which a very strong statistical significance p ≤ 0.001 occurs. It can be concluded that the disc herniation which was not accompanied by neurologic deficit leads to a certain reduction in power parameters, but is not crucial for the termination of sports or achieving good sport results among patients who have no obvious neurological deficit

Keywords: disc herniation, power, sport, strength of the lower extremities

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