On 8/20/00 , [log in to unmask] writes:
<< Anyone ever looked into the relationship between poor ankle proprioception
and balance ??? What would be a reliable tool for measurement of balance? >>
***Though not directly related to this issue, the following research may be
of interest in this field:
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Burke Gurney, James Milani & Marybeth E Pedersen
ROLE OF FATIGUE ON PROPRIOCEPTION OF THE ANKLE
J of Exercise Physiology online, Journal of The American Society of Exercise
Physiologists (ASEP)
Volume 3 Number 1 January 2000
Proprioception is comprised of sensory input from several sources including
skin, joint capsule/ligaments, and muscle spindles. It remains unclear to
what degree each component contributes to the overall proprioceptive picture.
If the muscle spindle plays a leading role as currently thought, then muscle
fatigue might yield a declination in proprioceptive awareness. The purpose of
this study was to examine the role fatigue plays in altering joint
repositioning sense in the ankle. Eighty-five (age mean=39.2, range=19-77
yrs) non-impaired subjects were asked to recognize a pre-determined position
of plantarflexion both with and without exercise to fatigue. Order of
exercise/non-exercise was randomly assigned. The average of the absolute
value deviations from the target position of three trials were recorded as
scores for both fatigue and non-fatigue conditions and treated as repeated
measures.
There was no significant difference in subject’s ability to recognize passive
repositioning of their ankle with (mean=4.18°) and without fatigue. Muscle
fatigue does not seem to play a part in joint repositioning in the ankle. The
inconsistency of these results with other findings using similar protocols in
the shoulder and knee are discussed.
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Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://www.egroups.com/group/supertraining
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