Objective: To investigate the effect of shoulder muscle fatigue on glenohumeral proprioception.
Design: A repeated proprioception test was performed.
Background: The role of conditioning and fatigue in sport injuries remains controversial. It has been hypothesized that proprioceptive information plays an important role in joint stabilization and that muscle fatigue may alter proprioceptive ability. However, the effect of shoulder muscle fatigue on glenohumeral proprioception is still controversial.
Methods: Eleven normal subjects (mean age 27.3 years) participated in this study. Proprioception tests (on the dominant shoulder) were performed in which proprioception of the active reproduced and passive reproduced shoulder position was measured using an isokinetic dynamometer and a proprioception testing apparatus, respectively. The speed of active repositioning was at 2 deg/s and passive repositioning was at 0.5 deg/s. The mean value of maximum voluntary contraction and the number of repetitions for muscle fatigue were recorded. Post-fatigue proprioception test was started within 3 min after muscle fatigue.
Results: There was no significant difference of shoulder proprioception between pre- and post-fatigue determinations of passive repositioning in shoulder internal rotation, passive repositioning in external rotation and active repositioning in internal rotation. There was a significant difference between pre- and post-fatigue determination of active repositioning in external shoulder rotation (mean degrees: 2.57 (SD 1.02) vs. 4.96 (SD 1.73), P<0.05).
Conclusion: Shoulder proprioception in active repositioning in external rotation was major affected by muscle mechanoreceptors in the presence of muscle fatigue.
Relevance: This study revealed that the shoulder proprioception after muscle fatigue in active repositioning in shoulder external rotation was affected more sensitively by the muscle mechanoreceptors than the joint mechanoreceptors. Increasing resistance of muscle fatigue would increase the shoulder proprioceptive ability.