The effect of thumbtack needle
stimulation in sports fieldYasuhisa Kaneko
Oriental Medicine Clinical Laboratory
Kuretake College of Medical Arts and Sciences
Tokyo, Japan

We provide acupuncture treatment for athletes not only for sports injuries, but also
for their optimum condition or better performance. It is mostly used after training orcompetition for faster recovery from fatigue, soreness, or pain. We also have been
examining if acupuncture stimulation prior to exercise can prevent or minimize fatigue,or even increase performance.
In this presentation, I will introduce the effect of thumbtack needle (TN) which can be
attached during exercise for 1) Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and 2)
isokinetic exercise.
1) 149 participants for triathlon race (Olympic distance: swim 1.5, bike 40km, run
10km) were attached either TN (Seirin Pyonex, 0.6mm) or sham (only adhesive tape) on
BL23, BL24, BL25, BL26 and BL32 before the race. Visual Analog Scale (VAS) wasused to assess their muscle soreness of the back and lower extremities at pre-race (PRE),
immediately after the race (POST1), and the day after the race (POST2). VAS
significantly increased at POST1 compared to PRE in both group (p< 0.01). VAS of
POST2 were decreased compared to POST1 (p<0.05) in TN group, while sham group
kept as high as POST1. It was suggested that DOMS was suppressed by the use of
thumbtack needles during the triathlon race.
2) 16 triathletes participated in the study. Biodex System3 was used for isokinetic
exercise of the knee extension/flexion. The angular velocity was 60 degree/sec andsubjects performed 5 sets of 30 repetition of unilateral knee exercise. Subjects wererandomly divided into 2 groups for receiving TN (Seirin Pyonex, 0.6mm) on BL23, BL24,BL25, BL26 and BL32, or Regular Needle (RN:Seirin J type, 60mm*0.25mm) on BL24
and BL26 prior to the exercise. Acupoints were selected as same level of spinal nerve
innervation as knee extensor and flexor, but TN and RN were penetrated into different
depth, 0.6mm for TN, 20mm for RN where subcutaneous tissue and muscle were locatedrespectively. RN was left for 5 minutes and removed. TN remained on the skin during
the exercise. The same exercise without any stimulation was performed as control(CONT) on different side of the stimulated leg. Peak torque (PT), total work (TW), thework of first 1/3(F1/3) and latter 1/3(L1/3), mean power output (MP) were evaluated. As
the result, for intragroup comparison, PT, TW, F1/3, MP of 5th set were decreased
compared to 1st set in CONT (p<0.05) at flexion exercise. TW and F1/3 of 5th set weredecreased compared to 1st set in TN and RN (p<0.05). For intergroup comparison, PT,TW, F1/3 and MP of RN were lower compared to CONT at 1st set of extension exercise(p<0.05). MP of RN were decreased compared to TN at 5th set (p<0.05). It wassuggested that the decreased muscular output were caused from acupuncture
stimulation into the muscle with RN. The continuous stimulation on subcutaneous
tissue with TN during exercise seems to sustain mean power output. Acupuncture
insertion into different depth may lead different effects on isokinetic exercise.
Keyword: thumbtack needle, DOMS, isokinetic exercise