Background and Purpose: Muscle strength training is important for people with knee osteoarthritis (OA). High-resistance exercise has been demonstrated to be more beneficial than low-resistance exercise for young subjects. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of high- and low-resistance strength training in elderly subjects with knee OA.Subjects and Methods: One hundred two subjects were randomly assigned to groups that received 8 weeks of high-resistance exercise (HR group), 8 weeks of low-resistance exercise (LR group), or no exercise (control group). Pain, function, walking time, and muscle torque were examined before and after intervention.Results: Significant improvement for all measures was observed in both exercise groups. There was no significant difference in any measures between HR and LR groups. However, based on effect size between exercise and control groups, the HR group improved more than the LR group.Discussion and Conclusion: Both high- and low-resistance strength training significantly improved clinical effects in this study. The effects of high-resistance strength training appear to be larger than those of low-resistance strength training for people with mild to moderate knee OA, although the differences between the HR and LR groups were not statistically significant.

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the use of 3 mobilization techniques—end-range mobilization (ERM), mid-range mobilization (MRM), and mobilization with movement (MWM)—in the management of subjects with frozen shoulder syndrome (FSS).

We investigated the effects of scapular tape on the electromyographic (EMG) activity of the upper trapezius (UT), lower trapezius (LT), serratus anterior (SA), anterior deltoid (AD), and shoulder proprioception in 12 healthy shoulders. Participants were blindfolded and required to complete a target end/mid range position with the hand. They performed six trials under two experimental conditions; no tape and therapeutic tape. EMG activity was measured by surface electrodes, and proprioception was measured by the FASTRAK electromagnetic motion tracking system. Two‐way repeated measures ANOVA showed that UT and AD activities decreased 2.65% (p = 0.001), and SA muscular activities increased 1.9% (p = 0.015) in the taping condition. The proprioceptive feedback magnitude was significantly lower in the taping condition than in the no taping condition (11.9°, p < 0.005). Additionally, correlation coefficients were higher than 0.5 between muscle activity and proprioceptive feedback with the taping condition; UT and magnitude in the mid range task (R = 0.516); LT and magnitude in the end range task (R = −0.524); and SA and magnitude in the mid range task (R = −0.576). The results suggest that scapular tape affects the muscle activity of UT, AD, and SA, and that the effects are related to proprioception feedback. These results implicate that the mechanisms by which scapular taping induces effects can be explained by neuromuscular control and proprioceptive feedback factors. © 2010 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 29:53–57, 2011