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A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WHOLE BODY VIBRATION TRAINING AND CONVENTIONAL TRAINING ON KNEE PROPRIOCEPTION AND POSTURAL STABILITY AFTER ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTION. Moezy A, Olyaei G, Hadian M, Razi M, Faghihzadeh S. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2008;42:373-385
A COM
The objective of this study was to compare the effect of a whole
body vibration training (WBVT) programme with a conventional training (CT) programme on knee proprioception and postural stability after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) recon- struction. Twenty athletes with unilateral ACL reconstruction were randomly assigned to the WBVT or CT group; all participants received 12 sessions of WBVT or conventional training.
Pre and post-intervention they measured joint repositioning at 30° and 60° using a Biodex dynamometer and bilateral dynamic postural stability (anteroposterior, mediolateral and overall stability using the Biodex Stability System which is basically and electronic wobble board). Results: The improvement in postural stability in the WBVT group was significantly greater than that in the CT group.
sportEX comment More research on ACLs, but perhaps
of greater value is that this paper validates the use of whole body vibration training given that vibration plates are becoming popular in many health centres and private clinics. It also highlights the importance of proprioception training in the rehab process.
A HEAT ACCLIMATION PROTOCOL FOR TEAM SPORTS. Sunderland C, Morris JG Nevill ME. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2008;42:327-333
The impact of four short heat acclimation sessions were examined using 30–45
minutes of the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST), which is a mixture of periods of intermittent running, consisting of sprinting, interspersed with periods of jogging and walking designed to stimulate game conditions. Seventeen female well-trained games
players were split into three groups: an acclimation group working at 30°C, 24% relative humidity (RH), a moderate training group (18°C, 41% RH) and a control group
to-side differences in knee laxity would be at increased risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury. From 1558 female soccer and basketball players who were prospectively screened, 19 went on to tear their anterior cruciate ligaments. Four height and mass-matched control subjects were selected from the uninjured screened athletes for comparison with each of the 19 injured subjects, making a total of 95 subjects (19 injured; 76 uninjured). Generalised joint-laxity tests at the wrist and hand and anterior-posterior tibiofemoral translation were quantified using the CompuKT knee arthrometer. This detects the relative motion between two sensor pads, one on the patella and the other on the tibial tuberosity and measures the amount of anterior and posterior tibial translation. In other papers it has been given a high intra-rater reliability so
who did not complete any training between the main trials. The pre-acclimation (A) and post-acclimation (B) trials were separated by 28 days to control for menstrual phase and verified using hormonal analysis. The four acclimation or moderate training sessions utilising the LIST were completed with one or two rest days interspersed between each session in a 10-day period prior to the post- acclimation trial (B). Results: In the post-acclimation trial distance run was increased by 33% in the acclimation group but was unchanged in the moderate and control groups. The acclimation group had
the results should be valid. From the results, a statistical modal was constructed to determine predictors of anterior cruciate ligament injury status. Results: For every 1.3-mm increase in side- to-side differences in anterior-posterior knee displacement, the odds of anterior cruciate ligament–injured status increased 4-fold. A positive measure of knee hyperextension increased the odds of anterior cruciate ligament–injured status 5-fold.
sportEX comment Injury prevention is a hot topic in research at the moment and there is
lots of work on ACL problems in the literature. In the first of these papers from The American Journal of Sports Medicine, the players with a significantly increased risk of injury were
a lower rectal temperature and an increase in thermal comfort after acclimation. There was no difference in serum progesterone, aldosterone or cortisol concentrations following acclimation or between groups. The suggestion was that the lower rectal temperature and a concomitant rise in thermal comfort may be partly responsible for the improvement in exercise capacity.
sportEX comment The protocol seems to work. The
message here is keep training functional and specific to the sport you play.
able to be identified through the use of a questionnaire, but player compliance with the training programmes prescribed was low and so effect of the intervention on injury risk could not be detected. A group with greater compliance may well have given a great deal more information from which to plan prevention programmes. In the second paper, the results indicate that increased knee-laxity measures may contribute to increased risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury, but the authors do suggest using the measures in conjunction with measures of neuromuscular control of the knee joint to identify high-risk female athletes with high accuracy. Once this is done and the athletes identified, appropriate interventions to reduce injury risk can be planned.
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