|
Science Of Training
Need a little more of scientific reason to get on a balance board and add a third dimension to your training? We put together a summary articles with experiments related to balance. View the article titles here.
ACL And Lower Leg Involvement:
- Patients with ACL reconstructions show decreased muscular activity on balance board tests.
- Patients without ACL ligaments display more postural sway and less control when standing on injured leg.
Ankle Injuries:
- Elite field hockey players with previous ankle injuries had decreased ability to maintain balance and had weaker dorsiflexors.
- Tibialis Anterior (shin muscle and dorsiflexors) may be a better source for balance feedback compared to calf.
- Training group that strengthen dorsiflexors (shin muscle) show greater ankle stability with less postural sway.
Differences Between Women And Men:
- Hip abductor strength is more important for knee control when landing from a jump compared to men.
- Obese women had less static posture balance in the anterior/posterior axis.
- Obese men had less static posture balance in anterior/posterior and medial/lateral axis.
Effects Of Fatigue:
- Trunk muscle fatigue was significant for decreasing static and dynamic balance.
- 24 hours after intense plyometric jumps showed impairment of balance ability.
- Lower leg fatigue impaired postural sway and control after 10 and 30 min of exercise.
- Lower leg fatigue caused disrupted stability and posture control for subjects with chronic ankle instability.
Game Time Injuries:
- Elite field hockey players with ankle injuries occurred on turf and 75% of them were during a game.
- High school athletes were 3 times more likely to receive a shoulder injury during competition.
Baseball And Softball Players:
- Throwing fatigue protocol for baseball had failed recovery of sensorimotor system acuity of arm cocked position after 10 min.
- Softball players had better throwing velocity after a closed chain exercise program 3 times a week for 12 weeks.
Body Weight:
- Increased weight was directly correlated to static posture balance in the anterior/posterior axis.
- Body weight fluctuations of bulimia nervosa patients may affect patients in the anterior/posterior axis.
- Extremely obese individuals show greater postural sway and decreased balance. Weight reduction and balance training showed better results that just weight reduction alone.
Spinal Health:
- Spinal position affects stability and functional exercises should be muli-planar with strategic contraction rhythm for spinal stability. Whole body training is better for fall prevention.
- Whole-body program designs are effective to reduce falls and improve functional mobility in older adults.
- Strength training individual spinal muscles in a single plane may not help in "functional exercises" that are multi-planar because multi-plane exercises need a balance of all 3 spinal axis for spinal stability.
Elderly And Sedentary:
- Lumbar kyphosis and osteoporosis had more postural sway and may increase risk for falls compared to thoracic kyphosis.
- Static postural control was positively effected with training and would be good for low physical activity populations.
- Balance training is effective for symmetry of weight distribution for sedentary subjects after 4 weeks.
Core Strength:
- Balance training will improve reactive ability to reduce lower body injury, core training should be in post-season and can be tested with endurance tests.
- Swiss ball prone bridges or planks increase rectus abdominis and external oblique activation.
- Push-ups on a swiss ball show increased rectus abdominis and triceps activation when the feet were on the ground.
Balance Training Effects For High School Athletes:
- Balance training programs are effective in reducing reoccurring ankle injury for male soccer players.
- Soccer players who balance trained after practice improved more than the group training before practice.
- High school soccer and basketball players on a balance training program reduced the rate and risk of ankle sprain by 50%
- High school football players with previous ankle sprain and high body mass index showed 77% reduction in non-contact ankle sprain after balance training.
Dynamic Postural Control:
- Dynamic posture controls were better in the morning using the Star Excursion Balance Test.
- Static postural control did not differ during time of day using the single limb stance.
- Collegiate female basketball players lacked postural control compared to gymnasts and soccer players.
Concentration:
- Children with postural instability of the head and shoulder showed drawing inaccuracy.
- Baseball players had compromised postural control with external stimuli of sideline vs clinic balance testing.
|
