the effects of dry needling as a novel recovery strategy on quadriceps muscle fatigue: a pilot study

Background: dry needling (dn) is a procedure to treat neuromusculoskeletal disorders. this study aimed to examine the effects of dn on quadriceps muscle fatigue in healthy young adults.methods: fifteen healthy young subjects (13 male, 2 female; mean±standard deviation 26.1±5.9 years) participated in a pretestposttest study. subjects received one session of dn for a total of 3 minutes with one minute each for the vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, and rectus femoris muscles. the isometric peak torque (ipt), single leg hop (slh) test, and y balance test (ybt) were measured at baseline, immediately after completion of the fatigue protocol, and after dn.results: repeated measures anova demonstrated significant improvements in the ipt, slh, and ybt scores after dn. effects sizes were medium for ipt (d =0.61) and slh test (d=0.57), and large for ybt (d=0.7).conclusion: dry needling had a significant effect on recovery of quadriceps muscle fatigue, functional performance, and dynamic balance. these findings suggest that dn can be utilized as a novel recovery strategy to manage muscle fatigue. further research is warranted.