Abstract
[Purpose] To investigate the knee flexor and extensor strengths of women measured without a fixed belt. [Subjects] Seventeen healthy adult women with no medical history of lower limb disorders. [Methods] Using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD), we measured right and left knee flexor and extensor strengths in the manual muscle testing (MMT) posture, and the basic sitting posture: sitting with the knees and hips in 90˚ flexion. We calculated the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of knee flexion and extension, and used the t-test to compare them between the positions. [Results] ICCs of both the basic sitting posture and the MMT posture were greater than 0.7, and the extensor and flexor strengths of both the right and left knees were significantly larger in the basic sitting posture. [Conclusion] Knee flexor and extensor strength can be easily and simply measured by a hand-held dynamometer.
