Abstract
Zhou S, Huang L-P, Liu J, Yu J-H, Tian Q, Cao L-J. Bilateral effects of 6 weeks' unilateral
acupuncture and electroacupuncture on ankle dorsiflexors muscle strength: a pilot
study.
Objectives
To determine the effect of unilateral manual acupuncture at selected acupoints on
ankle dorsiflexion strength of both limbs, and compare the effect with that of electroacupuncture
at the same acupoints and sham points.
Design
Randomized controlled trial.
Setting
Rehabilitation laboratory of a university.
Participants
Young men (N=43) were randomly allocated into 4 groups: control; manual acupuncture
and electroacupuncture on 2 acupoints (ST-36 and ST-39); and electroacupuncture on
2 nonacupoints. These points were located on the tibialis anterior muscle.
Interventions
The participants in the experimental groups received 15 to 30 minutes of acupuncture
or electroacupuncture on the right leg in each session, 3 sessions per week for 6
weeks.
Main Outcome Measures
The maximal strength in isometric ankle dorsiflexion of both legs was assessed before
and after the experimental period.
Results
Repeated-measures analysis of variance identified significant and similar strength
gains (range, 35%–64% in the right leg and 32%–49% in the left leg; P<.01) in all acupuncture groups, but not in the control group (−2% to 2%, P>.05).
Conclusions
Unilateral manual acupuncture and electroacupuncture at the acupoints can improve
muscle strength in both limbs, and electroacupuncture at the nonacupoints as used
in this study can also induce similar strength gains.
Key Words
List of Abbreviations:
CON (control group), EAcu (electroacupuncture), EMS (electromyostimulation), ESham (electroacupuncture at sham point), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), H-reflex (Hoffmann's reflex), MAcu (manual acupuncture), MVC (maximal voluntary contraction), RMANOVA (analysis of variance with repeated measures), TCM (traditional Chinese medicine)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Archives of Physical Medicine and RehabilitationAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Cross education: possible mechanisms for the contralateral effects of unilateral resistance training.Sports Med. 2007; 37: 1-14
- Cross education and the human central nervous system.IEEE Eng Med Biol Mag. 2005; 24: 22-28
- Contralateral effects of unilateral resistance training: a meta-analysis.J Appl Physiol. 2004; 96: 1861-1866
- Chronic neural adaptations to unilateral exercise: mechanisms of cross education.Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2000; 28: 177-184
- Cross-education of strength depends on limb dominance: implications for theory and application.Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2009; 37: 179-187
- The ipsilateral motor cortex contributes to cross-limb transfer of performance gains after ballistic motor practice.J Physiol. 2010; 588: 201-212
- Effect of electrical stimulation of high and low frequency on maximum isometric force and some morphological characteristics in man.Int J Sports Med. 1987; 8: 256-260
- Cross-education of muscle strength is greater with stimulated than voluntary contractions.Motor Control. 1999; 3: 205-219
- The influence of unilateral electrical muscle stimulation on motor unit activity patterns in atrophic human quadriceps.Aust J Physiother. 1986; 32: 31-37
- Effect of electro-motor stimulation on the power production of a maximally stretched muscle.Scand J Rehabil Med. 1989; 21: 147-150
- Effects of unilateral voluntary and electromyostimulation training on muscular strength on the contralateral limb.Hong Kong J Sports Med Sports Sci. 2002; 14: 1-11
- Effects of unilateral EMS superimposed on voluntary training on strength and cross-sectional area.Muscle Nerve. 2009; 40: 430-437
- Bilateral effect of unilateral electroacupuncture on muscle strength.J Altern Complement Med. 2007; 13: 539-546
- Effect of one-legged exercise on the strength, power and endurance of the contralateral leg.Eur J Appl Physiol. 1992; 64: 117-126
- Electromyographic activity recorded from an unexercised muscle during maximal isometric exercise of the contralateral agonists and antagonists.Phys Ther. 1981; 6: 898-903
- Strength training the free limb attenuates strength loss during unilateral immobilization.J Appl Physiol. 2009; 106: 830-836
- Contralateral acupuncture versus ipsilateral acupuncture in the rehabilitation of post-stroke hemiplegic patients: a systematic review.BMC Complement Altern Med. 2010; 10: 41
- Current research on Juci.J Yun Nan Chinese Med. 2004; 25: 41-43
- Immediate effects of acupuncture on strength performance: a randomized, controlled crossover trial.Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010; 110: 353-358
- Electrical acupoint stimulation increases athlete's rapid strength.Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2006; 26 ([Chinese]): 313-315
- Research on the neurophysiological mechanisms of acupuncture: review of selected studies and methodological issues.J Altern Complement Med. 2001; 7: S121-S127
- Electroacupuncture: mechanisms and clinical application.Biol Psychiatry. 1998; 44: 129-138
- Acupuncture analgesia: areas of consensus and controversy.Pain. 2011; 152: S41-S48
- Ergogenic effect of acupuncture in sport and exercise: a brief review.J Strength Cond Res. 2010; 24: 1421-1427
- The effects of acupuncture needle stimulation on skeletal muscle activity and performance.J Strength Cond Res. 1998; 12: 253-257
- Transcutaneous electrical stimulation on acupuncture points improves muscle function in subjects after acute stroke: a randomized controlled trial.J Rehabil Med. 2009; 41: 312-316
- Optimizing the experimental design for ankle dorsiflexion fMRI.Neuroimage. 2004; 22: 1619-1627
- Lower extremity injury.Sports Med. 1992; 14: 149-156
- Bilateral neuromuscular plasticity from unilateral training of the ankle dorsiflexors.Exp Brain Res. 2011; 208: 217-227
- G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences.Behav Res Methods. 2007; 39: 175-191
- Handedness in Chinese.Acta Psychologica Sinica. 1983; 15: 27-35
- Essentials of Chinese acupuncture.1st ed. Foreign Languages Pr, Beijing1980
- Spinal and supraspinal factors in human muscle fatigue.Physiol Rev. 2001; 81: 1725-1789
- Comparison of the effectiveness of the traditional acupuncture point, ST. 36 and Omura's ST.36 Point (True ST. 36) needling on the isokinetic knee extension & flexion strength of young soccer players.Acupunct Electrother Res. 2007; 32: 71-79
- Are acupoints specific for diseases?.Chin Med. 2010; 5: 1
- The effects of acupuncture, electroneedling and transcutaneous electrical stimulation therapies on peripheral haemodynamic functioning.Disabil Rehabil. 1998; 20: 41-48
- Is placebo acupuncture what it is intended to be?.Evid Based Complement Altern Med. 2011; 2011: 1-5
- Sham acupuncture may be as efficacious as true acupuncture: a systematic review of clinical trials.J Altern Complement Med. 2009; 15: 213-216
- Contralateral effects of unilateral strength training: evidence and possible mechanisms.J Appl Physiol. 2006; 101: 1514-1522
- Combined application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation and voluntary muscular contractions.Sports Med. 2008; 38: 161-177
- Physiological and methodological considerations for the use of neuromuscular electrical stimulation.Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010; 110: 223-234
- Soleus H-reflex and its relation to static postural control.Gait Posture. 2011; 33: 169-178
- Electromyostimulation training effects on neural drive and muscle architecture.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005; 37: 1291-1299
- Peripheral electrical stimulation to induce cortical plasticity: a systematic review of stimulus parameters.Clin Neurophysiol. 2011; 122: 456-463
- fMRI analysis of active, passive and electrically stimulated ankle dorsiflexion.Neuroimage. 2009; 44: 469-479
- Characterization of the ”deqi” response in acupuncture.BMC Complement Altern Med. 2007; 7: 33
- Effect of electroacupuncture and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation at Hegu (LI.4) acupuncture point on the cutaneous reflex.Acupunct Electrother Res. 2002; 27: 191-202
- Neural adaptation to resistance training.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1988; 20: S135-S145
Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 10, 2011
Footnotes
Supported by Tianjin Scientific Research Foundation (grant no. 05YFGDSF02100) and Internal Research Grant of Southern Cross University, Australia.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Reprints are not available from the authors.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
