Affiliations: [a] Department of Health Sciences, University of Jaén,
Jaén, Spain | [b] Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and
Corporal, University of Jaén, Jaén, Spain
Note: [] Corresponding author: Natalia Romero Franco, Department of
Health Sciences, Faculty of Physiotherapy, University of Jaén,
E-23071 Jaén, Spain. Tel.: +34 953 212917; Fax: +34 953 012141; E-mail: narf52@gmail.com
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Proprioception is affected during sports events,
thus jeopardizing performance and even the well-being of athletes. To
effectively control the injury risk and performance, sport professionals should
find out how long the proprioceptive damage lasts. OBJECTIVE: To analyze acute effects of an anaerobic lactic exercise on the knee joint position sense
of athletes and the duration of these effects until twenty-four hours later. METHODS: Fifteen athletes performed two training sessions one week apart:
Warm-up: 30-minute warm-up; and Lactic Exercise: 30-minute warm-up and an
anaerobic lactic exercise session. All athletes carried out a joint position
sense test of knee, as well as a blood lactate and heart rate analysis before
(Pre), just after (Post_{0Min}), thirty minutes after (Post_{30Min})
and 24 hours (Post_{24H}) after each training session. RESULTS: Absolute angular error in knee positioning increased just after
Lactic Exercise with statistically higher values than after Warm-up Exercise
(p=0.001) and gradually decreased toward 24 hours later. Relative angular
error in knee positioning decreased statistically significant 24 hours after
Lactic Exercise (p=0.021). CONCLUSION: Anaerobic lactic exercise immediately depletes the accuracy of knee joint position sense,
although it is recovered 30 minutes later. After 24 hours, knee joint position sense is better than baseline.
