Sural nerve facilitation of the soleus muscle H-reflex in high level gymnasts

Abstract

The effect of a non-nociceptive sural nerve stimulation on the H-reflex was examined in 6 young female gymnasts and 12 control subjects. At the 70–90 ms delays investigated between conditioning and test stimulations, the sural nerve stimulation produced a facilitation that did not differ significantly between the gymnast group (6.15% of the maximal H-reflex size, H_max) and the control group (8.12% H_max). The inter-subject dispersion was significantly larger in the control group (0.30%–21.04% H_max) than in the gymnast group (4.44%–7.70% H_max). It is suggested that this narrow range of sural nerve facilitation may have resulted from the prolonged specific training of these sportswomen.