A review of the fatigue’s effect on shoulder proprioception

Background: Fatigue is considered a significant contributing factor to shoulder injuries that most commonly happen at the later phases of a competitive game, possibly due to reduced proprioception. The main objective of the current review was to provide information based on the available literature regarding fatigue’s impact on shoulder proprioception. Methods: We performed a literature search via the EBSCO, PubMed, and Scopus electronic databases using the keywords (“muscle fatigue” OR “muscular fatigue” OR “fatigue exercise” OR “fatiguing activity”) AND (“proprioception”) AND (“shoulder”). The studies incorporated in this review were required to meet the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Study design (PICOS) criteria. Results: A total of 12 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria, examining the impact of tiredness on shoulder joint repositioning sense (n =9), the threshold for detecting passive movement (n =2), and the sense of force reproduction (n =1). Conclusions: Exercise-induced fatigue can cause considerable impairment of shoulder joint position sense. The other subcategories of proprioception, including kinesthesia and sense of force reproduction, are also affected due to fatigue.