Effect of Exercise Combined With Stretching Program to Prevent Lateral Epicondylalgia in Handgun Olympic Shooting Athletes: a Randomized Controlled Trial
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- University of Valencia
- Enrollment
- 61
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Pain - Algometer
Study Overview
Brief Summary
Lateral epicondylalgia is one of the most common pathologies suffered by Olympic gun shooting athletes. In Spain, there is hardly any research carried out in this sport, so there are no injury prevention protocols available. Preventing these injuries would be fundamental to improve the performance of athletes and to be able to continue adding successes to national honors.
It has also been evidenced that if exercise is combined with stretching, the benefits of physical therapy are increased. High-quality studies have stated that it is not necessary for this exercise protocol combined with stretching to be very prolonged over time, as they affirm that significant improvements can be achieved with only four weeks of exercise.
This study aimed to test the hypothesis that Olympic handgun shooting athletes who perform a four-week multimodal exercise program combined with stretching have a lower risk of suffering from lateral epicondylalgia than athletes who do not perform this program, determining its effectiveness for pain prevention.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 35 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Adults aged >35 years
- •Present a risk of suffering from lateral epicondylalgia
- •Be in possession of a federation Olympic shooting license
- •Practice Olympic shooting with handgun and carry out at least one Olympic shooting training session a week or have participated in the last three months in an official competition
Exclusion Criteria
- •Subjects who had serious uncontrolled illnesses
- •Who had undergone surgery as a treatment for lateral epicondylalgia
- •Who had received treatment for lateral epicondylalgia in the last month or injections of corticosteroids or steroids for this pathology in the last 6 months
- •Who had suffered a serious upper limb injury in the last year or present a risk of suffering epicondylalgia due to a cause other than Olympic shooting
Arms & Interventions
Experimental
3 weekly sessions (12 sessions in total) of approximately 35 minutes each of exercise and stretching.
Intervention: Exercise and stretching programe (Other)
Control
No intervention.
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Pain - Algometer
Time Frame: 0 week, 4 week
The algometer will be placed on the lateral epicondyle of the humerus and pressure will be applied until the athlete reported feeling pain. 3 measurements will be made on each upper limb and the average will be obtained.
Pain - Visual Analogic Scale
Time Frame: 0 week, 4 week
The patients will be shown the Visual Analogic Scale (VAS) scale (0-10) on a sheet of paper and will asked to write down how much pain they had in the lateral epicondyle of each upper limb.
Secondary Outcomes
- Range of movement(0 week, 4 week)
- Hand grip strength(0 week, 4 week)
- Subjective perception(0 week, 4 week)
Investigators
David Hernández-Guillén
Assistant Professor of Physiotherapy
University of Valencia