As female soccer's popularity and participation rise, injury rates are expected to increase due to the sport's complexity, highlighting the importance of regular health and neuromuscular function screenings for injury prevention. The aim of the study was to determine how neuromuscular warm-up affects the contractility of the lower limb muscles and its significance in the prevention of injuries in female soccer players. The research sample consisted of 36 female soccer players, who were divided into an experimental (EG) and a control (CG) group with an average age 17.45 ± 2.63 years (EG) and 16.24 ± 1.09 years (CG). The contractility of the lower limb muscles was monitored using Tensiomyography (TMG). We evaluated bilaterally five muscles of the lower limbs for each soccer player: m. biceps femoris, m. gastrocnemius medialis, m. gluteus maximus, m. vastus lateralis, and m. vastus medialis. The experimental factor in the research, implemented during the warm-up phase of the training session, was neuromuscular warm-up over 12 weeks of EG. To assess the effect of the intervention program on changes in the muscle contractility of the soccer players, we employed the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test for dependent samples and the Mann-Whitney U test for independent samples. Results indicates that the speed of muscle contraction (Tc) and muscle stiffness (Dm) vary among different muscles and even between dominant and non-dominant limbs of soccer players. The impact of neuromuscular warm-up on contraction time and maximal displacement was negligible, except for a moderate effect in m. gluteus maximus of the non-dominant limb. Although the impact of neuromuscular warm-up on lower limb muscle contractility was not significant, more regular monitoring and inclusion of neuromuscular warm-up at a higher weekly frequency may have beneficial effects.
