Gyroball exercise can enhance wrist muscle activation

Abstract

As a common occupational health concern, wrist injuries not only adversely affect workers’ well-being, but also compromise their productivity. Intermittent short-duration gyroball exercise has the potential to reduce the risk and severity of work-related wrist injuries, however, the underlying biomechanical mechanisms for its effects are still unclear. To address this problem, the present study aimed to examine wrist kinematics and wrist muscle activation with the application of intermittent short-duration gyroball exercise. Eighteen young adults were involved in an experimental study. Comparisons of wrist kinematics and wrist muscle activation were made between the gyroball exercise and two other exercise interventions (i.e., load-holding wrist rotation exercise and free-load wrist rotation exercise). We found that the gyroball exercise intervention was superior to comparative interventions in terms of activating wrist muscles, a critical factor for wrist injury control. This finding implies that intermittent short-duration gyroball exercise could be an effective intervention for preventing and rehabilitating work-related wrist injuries. This quantitative study can provide valuable insights for developing evidence-based guidelines for incorporating gyroball exercise into occupational injury prevention programs.