Biomechanical characterisation of the pull-up exercise

Abstract Purpose Performance is the benchmark to assess the level of an athlete: in this respect, a more precise qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the performance represents an important target to be achieved. Methods The work presents a possible method, based on the biomechanical evaluation of the motor exercise with an optoelectronic system, to characterise single or multiple repetitions of pull-ups of 12 athletes of sport climbing and sportive healthy subjects, monitoring and scoring the performance and the safety of the executions. The analysis includes the time courses of the segmental kinematics and some newly developed synthetic indices in the form of performance and safety scores. Results The time courses make it possible to analyse the linear and angular kinematics district-by-district and have a direct overview of the ranges of motion, the patterns of task execution, together with the possible strategies adopted to complete the exercise in terms of compensations. The proposed characterisation provides a condensed summary of the global execution quality and offers the possibility to identify which single biomechanical parameters are modified. Conclusion The method is intended as a practical tool to enrich the training schedule in terms of the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the performances and to increase the self-awareness while training.