The Influence of Hand Guards on Explosive Force and Pain and Exertion Perception in a Hang Holding Task

Abstract

We investigated whether hand guards (HG) influence the perception of pain and exertionduring the execution of a standardized task on high bar to induce forearm muscle fatigue aswell as a decline in grip strength after the task. Design: A cross-over study design wasemployed 15 healthy and physically active volunteers completed static bodyweight holds (8cycles of 20 second load in hang and 10 second rest), on a high bar. The exercise protocolwas performed with and without HG. Perception of pain and exertion during the task wererecorded. Peak handgrip force and explosive force parameters (i.e., rate of force development[RFD] and contractile impulse [CI] at 30 to 200 ms) were obtained from force-time curves.Peak force and explosive force parameters were normalized (i.e., POS/PRE) for statisticalanalysis. The use of a HG significantly attenuates pain perception (p < 0.05), with amoderate to large effect size (d = 0.52), but did not alter the perception of exertion during thetask, nor did it alter peak force, RFD, or CI. The use of HG reduces the perception of localpain during static holds. However, HG do not alter the perception of exertion during the tasknor do they alter the gripping force ability immediately afterwards. This research did notreceive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profitsectors.