The effect of intervention balance program on postural stability

Abstract

The study is focused on evaluation of the effect of intervention balance program on postural stability (PS) among university students of “Specialization of gymnastic sports”. The experimental group (n = 18) performed a specific balance program in addition to their regular training sessions and the control group (n = 15) underwent their normal sport regimen. The multi-sensory FOOTSCAN platform was used for the posturographic examination. We evaluated the parameters Centre of Pressure (COP) in the tests: narrow standing position with (NS-VC) and without (NS-WC) visual control, flamingo stance on the preferred leg (FPL) and non-preferred leg (FNL). The results revealed a significant effect of time on changes in PS in bipedal tests regardless of group and visual control (F1,62 = 4.65, p = 0.03, η2p = 0.07). Visual control had a significant effect on PS in both groups (F1,62 = 12.55, p = 0.001, η2p = 0.17). The intervention program had a significant effect on PS in one leg standing position (FPL: COPpre-test = 1006.01 ± 396.17 mm, COPpost-test = 875.78 ± 284.24 mm, t17 = 2.34, p<0.05; FNL: COPpre-test = 1102.44 ± 323.82 mm, COPpost-test = 987.89 ± 357.63 mm, t17 = 2.20, p<0.05) and test NS-WC (COPpre-test = 145.67 ± 34.91 mm, COPpost-test = 128.89 ± 36.03 mm, t17 = 3.26, p<0.05). In the control group, we found a significant improvement only for FNL test (p<0.05). The results of study showed that even a low volume specific balance program performed in addition to regular training sessions may also lead to postural stability enhancement.