The Effect of Muscular Fatigue on Neck Proprioception Performance between Elite Athletes and Non-Athletes

 The poor performance of neck proprioception is a risky factor for athlete’s head and neck injury. Muscle fatigue as an inevitable factor of any physical activity can cause disorder in proprioception performance. This study intends to investigate the effect of cervical muscular fatigue on neck proprioception performance in elite karate athletes in comparison to non-athletes. 

 Sixteen professional karate athletes and sixteen non-athletes participated in this study. Cervicocephalic relocation test measuring angle repositioning error during active cervical extension and rotation movements was used to assess neck proprioception ability, before and after isotonic muscular fatigue. Data were analyzed by independent T-test and paired T-test with SPSS (version 20) and alpha level set at 0/05. 

 There is no significant difference in neck sense status before and after neck muscular fatigue in both groups. Also, there is significant difference in neck proprioception performance between karate athletes and non-athletes following extension (P<0.05). In addition, athletes had greater joint position errors than non-athletes. 

 Although muscular fatigue did not affect proprioceptive neck performance, probably the effects of degenerative changes in neck proprioception and the acceleration repeated movements in karate athletes weaken their neck proprioception function in some direction in comparison to non-athletes. Therefore, it is important to improve the performance of neck proprioception in karate athlete's trough special neck proprioception training.