There is evidence from high quality studies to strongly support the positive association between increased levels of physical activity, exercise participation and improved health in older adults. Worldwide, around 3.2 million deaths per year are being attributed to inactivity. In industrialised countries where people are living longer lives, the levels of chronic health conditions are increasing and the levels of physical activity are declining. Key factors in improving health are exercising at a moderate-to-vigorous level for at least 5 days per week and including both aerobic and strengthening exercises. Few older adults achieve the level of physical activity or exercise that accompanies health improvements. A challenge for health professionals is to increase physical activity and exercise participation in older adults. Some success in this has been reported when physicians have given specific, detailed and localised information to their patients, but more high quality research is needed to continue to address this issue of non-participation in physical activity and exercise of a high enough level to ensure health benefits.

For people with MS, the decision to engage in physical activity (or not) is complex, fluid and individual; made more complex by the unpredictable nature of MS. Rehabilitation professionals attempting to engage people with MS in a physical activity programme should consider adopting an individualised approach to barrier management which takes into account personal beliefs and perceptions regarding physical activity engagement.

There was no difference in falls rates between the groups, with falls reducing similarly (mean falls rate reduction of 58%) over the 17-month follow-up period. Strength and balance improved similarly in all groups over time.

Traumatic minor cervical strains are common place in high-impact sports (e.g. tackling) and premature degenerative changes have been documented in sports people exposed to recurrent impact trauma (e.g. scrummaging in rugby) or repetitive forces (e.g. Formula 1 racing drivers, jockeys). While proprioceptive exercises have been an integral part of rehabilitation of injuries in the lower limb, they have not featured as prominently in the treatment of cervical injuries. However, head and neck position sense (HNPS) testing and re-training may have relevance in the management of minor sports-related neck injuries, and play a role in reducing the incidence of ongoing pain and problems with function. For efficacious programmes to be developed and tested, fundamental principles associated with proprioception in the cervical spine should be considered. Hence, this article highlights the importance of anatomical structures in the cervical spine responsible for position sense, and how their interaction with the CNS affects our ability to plan and execute effective purposeful movements. This article includes a review of studies examining position sense in subjects with and without pathology and describes the effects of rehabilitation programmes that have sought to improve position sense. In respect to the receptors providing proprioceptive information for the CNS, the high densities and complex arrays of spindles found in cervical muscles suggest that these receptors play a key role. There is some evidence suggesting that ensemble encoding of discharge patterns from muscle spindles is relayed to the CNS and that a pattern recognition system is used to establish joint position and movement. Sensory information from neck proprioceptive receptors is processed in tandem with information from the vestibular system. There are extensive anatomical connections between neck proprioceptive inputs and vestibular inputs. If positional information from the vestibular system is inaccurate or fails to be appropriately integrated in the CNS, errors in head position may occur, resulting in an inaccurate reference for HNPS, and conversely if neck proprioceptive information is inaccurate, then control of head position may be affected. The cerebellum and cortex also play a role in control of head position, providing feed-forward and modulatory influences depending on the task requirements. Position-matching tasks have been the most popular means of testing position sense in the cervical spine. These allow the appreciation of absolute, constant and variable errors in positioning and have been shown to be reliable. The results of such tests indicate that errors are relatively low (2-5 degrees). It is apparent that error is not consistently affected by age, a finding similar to studies undertaken in peripheral joints. Furthermore, the range of motion in which subjects are tested does not consistently affect accuracy in a predictable manner. However, it is evident that impairments in position sense are observed in individuals who have experienced wh...

The results indicate that it is possible to use a single EEG channel for detecting movement intentions that may be combined with assistive technologies. The simple setup may lead to a smoother transition from laboratory tests to the clinic.