Comparing position sense and isokinetic strength of the muscles of elbow joint between aikidokas and non-athlete people.

BACKGROUND: Aikido is a martial art comprises of locking techniques and falls. During the locking techniques, the elbow joint is forced into extended position. Moreover, the elbow hits the ground during the falling techniques. These might compromise joint position sense (JPS). The objectives of this study were to compare JPS and strength of the muscles of elbow joint between Aikidokas and a non-athlete group and to evaluate the correlation between JPS and muscle strength among Aikidokas. METHODS: All male Jiyushinkai style Aikidokas and a healthy matched non-athlete group participated in this cross-sectional study. Passive JPS at a speed of 4°/s and the isokinetic strength of elbow flexors and extensors were assessed. RESULTS: Evaluating the isokinetic parameters revealed no significantly difference between the groups in either flexion or extension at speeds of 60 (P-value range: 0.2-0.99) and 120 °/s (P-value range: 0.05-0.96). Also, the groups had no significant difference regarding different types of reconstruction error including constant error (P-value range: 0.38-0.91), variable error (P-value range: 0.09-0.87), and total variability (P-value range: 0.30-0.80). Moreover, very weak to weak correlation was observed between isokinetic parameters and passive JPS (r-value range: 0.01-0.39). CONCLUSIONS: JPS was not impaired in Aikidokas in spite of the repetitive stress applied to the elbow joint during the performance of Aikido techniques. The lack of significant difference in isokinetic between Aikidokas and healthy non-athletes, and the absence of an acceptable correlation between IPS and muscle strength in Aikidokas, might be attributed to the soft nature of Aikido.

Comparison of the prevalence of myofascial trigger points of muscles acting on knee between patients with moderate degree of knee osteoarthritis and healthy matched people.

INTRODUCTION: Trigger points have been implicated in the development of several musculoskeletal disorders. Trigger points harbored in lower limb muscles might represent a ubiquitous source of pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). This study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of Myofascial Trigger Points (MTrPs) in muscles acting on the knee in patients with OA. METHODS: Thirty-seven patients aged at least 55 years old with a moderate degree of OA (grade III of Kellgren and Lawrence scale) were recruited. Thirty asymptomatic people, matched on age and body mass index, were considered as the control group. Ten muscles acting on the knee joint were selected. Taut bands were also identified using a skin rolling method. A pressure of 3 kg/cm2 was used to identify myofascial trigger points in all muscles except the popliteus (8 kg/cm2). RESULTS: Chi-square was performed to compare the prevalence of trigger points between the groups. The McNemar test was administered to compare the prevalence of trigger points in the right and left sides of participants. Prevalence of the trigger points was significantly higher in patients with knee OA compared with asymptomatic people in all muscles except for right (p = 0.17) and left (p = 0.41) rectus femoris, right (p = 0.61) and left (p = 0.22) sartorius and left biceps femoris (p = 0.08). Comparison of the prevalence of MTrPs bilaterally revealed that only the right and left sartorius differed significantly (p = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of MTrPs in the muscles acting on the knee joint is higher in patients with a moderate degree of knee OA compared with asymptomatic subjects.