Prevention of Lateral Epicondylalgia in Handgun Olympic Shooting Athletes

Effect of Exercise Combined With Stretching Program to Prevent Lateral Epicondylalgia in Handgun Olympic Shooting Athletes: a Randomized Controlled Trial

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 Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Epicondylitis, Lateral
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Exercise and stretching programe

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 61
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Spain
  • Valencia, Spain, 46010
    • David Hernández Guillén

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; No intervention.
Experimental: Experimental; 3 weekly sessions (12 sessions in total) of approximately 35 minutes each of exercise and stretching.	Other: Exercise and stretching programe; It consists in: a serie of mobility exercises, which were used as warp-up; the mobility of the elbow, forearm, wrist and fingers of both upper limbs was worked on; and, exercises were performed to strengthen the muscles of both forearms.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Pain - Algometer	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.	0 week, 4 week
Pain - Visual Analogic Scale	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.	0 week, 4 week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Hand grip strength	It will be measured using a manual dynamometer, making 3 measurements on each upper limb with the elbow in flexion and 3 measurements with the elbow in extension, and the average of both methods of measurement will be obtained with the aim of achieving the greatest validity.	0 week, 4 week
Range of movement	The active range of elbow joint mobility will be measured by goniometry by a highly experienced researcher. The axis of the goniometer will be placed in the elbow joint, the stationary arm will be placed following the humeral diaphysis and the moving arm will be placed following the diaphysis of the radius. 3 measurements will be made on each upper limb and the average will be obtained in order to achieve the greatest validity.	0 week, 4 week
Subjective perception	To assess these subjective variables that can affect sporting performance, a questionnaire has been created with responses using a Likert-type scale from 1 to 5 in which the sensation of stopping and the movement of the handgun is assessed, which are essential elements for the execution of a good shot. Specifically, the aspects analyzed in this questionnaire were the perception of stability when raising the weapon, the perception of the arc of movement when aiming, stopping in the correct area and the sensation of wrist lock when stopping.	0 week, 4 week

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Valencia
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: David Hernández-Guillén, PT, PhD, University of Valencia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 31, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): September 30, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 2, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 2, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): July 10, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 18, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 16, 2024
• Last Verified: October 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Exercise; Prevention; Stretching; Epicaondylalgia
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Wounds and Injuries; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Muscular Diseases; Tendon Injuries; Tendinopathy; Arm Injuries; Elbow Tendinopathy; Elbow Injuries; Tennis Elbow
• Other Study ID Numbers: NB01

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No