Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal
Volume 27, Issue 1 , Pages 55-60, 2009

Trunk Position Sense in Older Tai Chi Sword Practitioners

Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China

Received 25 May 2009; accepted 31 December 2009.

Article Outline

Abstract 

To examine whether older Tai Chi sword practitioners had developed better trunk position sense than healthy control subjects, 16 female Tai Chi sword practitioners from a local community Tai Chi Club in Hong Kong were compared with 11 female healthy control subjects. Active trunk repositioning was used to test trunk proprioceptive acuity. Tai Chi sword practitioners made significantly smaller absolute angle errors than control subjects in trunk rotation to the left (2.2° ± 0.9° vs. 4.4° ± 2.7°; p = 0.006) and to the right (2.1° ± 0.9° vs. 4.2° ± 2.9° of control; p = 0.01), but there were negligible improvements in trunk forward flexion (3.9° ± 3.0° and 4.8° ± 3.0°, respectively; p = 0.46). These results demonstrate that Tai Chi sword practitioners had developed better position sense in trunk rotation but not in trunk flexion than healthy older subjects.

Key words:  ageing , exercise , Tai Chi , trunk proprioception

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PII: S1013-7025(10)70009-9

doi:10.1016/S1013-7025(10)70009-9

Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal
Volume 27, Issue 1 , Pages 55-60, 2009

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