A randomized feasibility study of a 12-week community-based exercise program for people with Huntington's disease.

Background And Purpose: The beneficial role of exercise as a treatment approach in Huntington's disease (HD) has support from both preclinical work and small-scale studies; however, there have been no controlled studies of gym-based exercise in people with HD. This phase 2 randomized trial (ISRCTN 59910670) assessed feasibility, safety, acceptability, and benefit of a structured exercise program.

Methods: Thirty-one participants (16 men; mean [SD] age = 50.

Gait adaptations to simultaneous cognitive and mechanical constraints.

Previous studies have shown that walking is not a purely automatic motor task but places demands on sensory and cognitive systems. We set out to investigate whether complex walking tasks, as when walking down a steeper gradient while performing a concurrent cognitive task, would demand gait adaptation beyond those required for walking under low-challenge conditions. Thirteen healthy young individuals walked at their self-selected speed on a treadmill at different inclinations (0, -5 and -10%).

Anomalous centre of mass energy fluctuations during treadmill walking in healthy individuals.

Motorised treadmills are used to research and rehabilitate gait despite conflicting evidence that treadmill ambulation is equivalent to ground walking. It has been suggested that no mechanical differences should exist between these environments but there is little evidence to support this. During ground walking, the whole body centre of mass (COM) acts like an inverted pendulum recovering energy, thereby reducing the effort of locomotion.

Short communication on the influence of position on anterior cruciate ligament injury and reconstruction in recreational rugby football union participants.

The different player positions in rugby union may place varying demands on a reconstructed anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in regards to 'cutting manoeuvres', this in turn may effect performance. In order to investigate sporting performance post reconstruction, a questionnaire was sent to amateur rugby clubs affiliated to the Oxfordshire Rugby Football Union (R.F.