None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Over the past ten years several research groups have demonstrated that spinal manipulation can change various aspects of nervous system function, including altered motor control, cognitive processing, reaction time, and the speed at which the brain processes information.Although motor control is altered after spinal manipulation, it is not yet clear if these alterations result in clinically significant changes to outcomes that are important for functional performance. Three aspects of motor function that are important for human performance are strength, power and muscle fatigue. However we recently published and presented three trials that demonstrated that a single session of spinal manipulation performed by a chiropractor increased muscle force and reduced fatigue in healthy young adults. This may have clinical implications for a variety of patient populations and in particular athletes are likely to benefit from gains in power and strength if they occur following spinal manipulation. Further research is now required to investigate whether similar findings are observed following spinal manipulation in athletes who already have high levels of power and strength before being treated. This proposed study will build on our previous work by investigating whether spinal manipulation influences muscle strength, power, fatigue and cortical drive in athletes. The study will involve a single pre and post manipulation assessment during each arm of this crossover trial. Study participants will be 15 high level athletes.
Interventions
A single session of spinal manipulation as intervention performed by a registered chiropractor. The duration of the session is approximately 30 minutes. The study is a crossover trial with a one week washout period between each treatment. The entire spine and both sacroiliac joints will be assessed for segmental dysfunction, and treated where deemed necessary by a registered chiropractor. The clinical indicators that will be used to assess the function of the spine prior to and after each spinal
A single session of spinal manipulation as intervention performed by a registered chiropractor. The duration of the session is approximately 30 minutes. The study is a crossover trial with a one week washout period between each treatment. The entire spine and both sacroiliac joints will be assessed for segmental dysfunction, and treated where deemed necessary by a registered chiropractor. The clinical indicators that will be used to assess the function of the spine prior to and after each spinal manipulation intervention include assessing for tenderness to palpation of the relevant joints, manually palpating for restricted intersegmental range of motion, assessing for palpable asymmetric intervertebral muscle tension, and any abnormal or blocked joint play and end-feel of the joints. All of these biomechanical characteristics are used by the chiropractors as clinical indicators of spinal dysfunction. All of the spinal manipulations carried out in this study will be high-velocity, low-amplitude thrusts to the spine or pelvic joints. This is a standard manipulation technique used by chiropractors and is also sometimes referred to as spinal adjustments. The mechanical properties of this intervention have been investigated; and although the actual force applied to the subject's spine depends on the therapist, the patient, and the spinal location of the manipulation, the general shape of the force-time history of spinal manipulations is very consistent and the duration of the thrust is always less than 200 milliseconds. The high-velocity type of manipulation is chosen specifically because previous research has shown that reflex electromyographic activation observed after manipulations only occurred after high-velocity, low-amplitude manipulations (as compared with lower-velocity mobilizations). This manipulation technique has also been previously used in studies that have investigated the neurophysiological effects of spinal manipulation. The chiropractor providing the spinal manipulation will be recording a log of all manipulations performed to monitor adherence.
Sponsors
Centre for Chiropractic Research, New Zealand College of Chiropractic
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Crossover
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 40 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Participants will be representative Taekwondo athletes who live in the Auckland area of New Zealand. To be eligible to participate volunteers must have represented their club at the senior premiership level during the previous 12 months, or represented their province or country within the previous 12 months. They must also have been actively engaged in resistance training at least twice per week on average over the previous six weeks.
Exclusion criteria
Subjects will be ineligible to participate if they exhibit no evidence of spinal dysfunctions, have absolute contraindications to spinal manipulation, have experienced previous significant adverse reactions to spinal manipulation, or if they are currently being treated for their subclinical pain symptoms.
Outcome results
None listed