 |
 |
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: --------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------ Dr Mel C Siff Denver, USA http://www.egroups.com/group/supertraining %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%