This week we discuss knee and shoulder isokinetic torque strength targets among healthy athletes. This study had a sample of 233 athletes from 27 different sports! This is a little worrisome in that there is not a large sample for any one sport. They even grouped sports up into six different categoies, but there was still not enough data per category. Lumping sports could also be problematic because basketball and baseball are both team sports, but they have very different kinetic and strength requirements. The large standard deviations for knee torque are likely due to the variety of sports tested. So what can we take away from this? Across a variety of sports, it is standard to have above 3.0 Nm/kg knee extension torque, and at least 1.8 Nm/kg knee flexion torque. There is a strong correlation between peak torque and rate of force development. Shoulder external rotation and internal rotation peak torques are similar across two different speeds.

The abstract can be found here: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/josptopen.2025.0095

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