Sural nerve facilitation of the soleus muscle H-reflex in high level gymnasts

The effect of a non-nociceptive sural nerve stimulation on the H-reflex was examined in 6 young female gymnnasts and 12 control subjects. At the 70-90 ms delays investigated between conditioning and test stimulations, the sural nerve stimulation produced a facilitation that did not differ significantly between the gymnast group (6.15% of the maximal H-reflex size, Hmax) and the control group (8.12% Hmax). The intersubject dispersion was significantly larger in the control group (0.30%-21.04% Hmax) than in the gymnast group (4.44%-7.70% Hmax). It is suggested that this narrow range of sural nerve facilitation may have resulted from the prolonged specific training of these sportswomen.