Shoulder proprioception in male and female athletes

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship betweeffmale and female athletes and shoulder proprioception. This includes the interaction of gender, overhand sports activity, fatiguing exercise, and proprioception. Clarifying these relationships may present insight to injury prevention and performance gains. Fifty-six subjects (30 males and 26 female) volunteered to participate. The participants did not have a history of shoulder surgery, shoulder injury in the past three months, or a disease affecting the neuromuscular system. The subjects were divided into two groups: (1) varsity athletes and (2) non-athletes. Group I was comprised of 16 subjects who performed Active Reproduction of Active Positioning (ARAP) and Passive Reproduction of Active Positioning (PRAP) at three target angles of 30 degrees of external rotation, 20 degrees of internal rotation, and 75 degrees of external rotation. All testing was done on a Biodex multi-joint dynamometer; subjects performed three trials at each angle. Next, participants performed a fatiguing exercise consisting of continual internal and external rotations of the shoulder at 180 degrees per second until the peak torque of the external rotator muscles dropped below 50 percent of the maximal torque production three rotations in a row. After exercises, the ARAP and PRAP tests were repeated. Participants performed all testing and exercises on both dominant and non-dominant arms. Group I, made up of 40 subjects (20 male and 20 female), performed a set of three trials of the ARAP test with the target angle set at 40 degrees of external rotation. For each condition, means, standard deviations, and a 3x2x2 with gender between subjects ANOV A was calculated using SPSS (Chicago, IL) statistical package; the IV · significance level was set at p < 0.05. Group I and Group II were compared by a paired samples t-test with the significance level at (p < 0.05). The results of this study suggest that there is a difference in proprioceptive abilities between overhand collegiate athletes and the general population. Athletes exhibited less joint position sense in the middle range of shoulder motion than the general population (p < 0.05). The athletes did not demonstrate any differences between the · dominant and non-dominant shoulder. These finding suggest that athletes' proprioception abilities may not be affected by sport activity as much as generalized joint · laxity that may be exhibited in both shoulders. Intense, short duration exercise did not affect the participants' proprioceptive abilities. There was not a significant relationship between gender and proprioceptive deficits.