Chronic Effect of Individualized Core Stability Programs in Recreational Athletes.

The Effect of Core Stability Programs With Different Training Intensities Quantified Using Accelerometers Integrated in Smartphones: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Core stability (CS) training is nowadays largely used in several fields, mainly to enhance athletic performance and to prevent and rehabilitate musculoskeletal injuries. However, in several experimental studies, CS training programs have not delivered as positive results as could be expected. The lack of proper modulation and quantification of the training load parameters (such as intensity, volume, frequency, etc.) may be one of the main explanations. Although training intensity has been manipulated by modifying the CS exercise difficulty through variations in mechanical constraints (i.e. participant posture, lever arms, base of support, unstable surfaces, etc.), to the best of the authors' knowledge no experimental study has quantified the CS training intensity based on objective parameters. The quantification of the load intensity is fundamental to analyze the dose-response relationships between training and CS adaptations. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of two individualized CS training programs using smartphone accelerometers placed on the pelvis to quantify the intensity of several of the most common CS exercises employed in fitness, sports and rehabilitation. The expected effect is that the experimental groups will improve CS significantly.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Core Stability
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Core stability training

Detailed Description

Sixty recreational male athletes will be evaluated twice (pre-test 1 and pre-test 2) before a core stability (CS) training program. Testing sessions will consist in several tests to assess sitting and global dynamic postural control, trunk isometric endurance, neuromuscular function of the lower extremities, trunk response to sudden and unexpected load perturbations and pelvic oscillation during CS exercises evaluated with a smartphone accelerometer. Later, they will be randomly assigned to one of the three groups included in the study: two experimental groups (low and high intensity) and a control group. The intervention will have a training frequency of 2 days per week for 6 weeks. Each CS training session will consist in 4 sets of one variation of four of the most popular stabilization exercises used to challenge core muscles: frontal bridge, back bridge, lateral bridge and bird-dog. Exercise variations will be performed isometrically in increasing order of difficulty through the modifications of the following mechanical constraints: lever-arm, number of supports and/or the use of unstable surfaces. The CS training programs will differ in exercises intensity, mainly. Each participant of the low intensity group will perform those exercise variations in which they have obtained an oscillation ranged between 0.2 and 0.3 m/s2 in pre-test, while participants of the high intensity group will perform the exercise variations in which they have obtained an oscillation ranged between 0.4 and 0.5 m/s2. The exercise duration will be set at 30 s and 15 s for the low intensity and high intensity group, respectively. All participants of the training groups will be revaluated every two weeks during the training period. After the intervention period, all participants will perform a post-test to evaluate the effectiveness of both CS programs. Statistical analysis will consist in repeated-measures ANOVAs for detecting possible significant differences within and between-groups.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Spain
  • Alicante
    • Elche, Alicante, Spain, 03202
      • Sport Research Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 35 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- Healthy recreative male athletes between 18 and 35 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inguinal hernia or urinary incontinence
• Pathologies that contraindicate physical exercise practice
• Low back pain in the last six months prior to testing
• Pathologies related with Central Nervous System that affect balance
• Professional athletes of sports modalities with high core stability demands

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: DOUBLE

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Low Intensity training group; Low Intensity training group will complete a 6 week core stability training program with low intensity/oscillation exercises	Other: Core stability training; Effect of different core stability programs using diverse training intensities
EXPERIMENTAL: High Intensity training group; High Intensity training group will complete a 6 week core stability training program with high intensity/oscillation exercises	Other: Core stability training; Effect of different core stability programs using diverse training intensities
NO_INTERVENTION: Control group; Control group will have 6 weeks with no intervention before post-test

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mean radial error of center of pressure in sitting condition	Postural control in sitting condition over an unstable seat evaluated through the mean radial error of center of pressure displacement (Units: millimeters)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Trunk angular displacement	Trunk angular displacement after sudden loading perturbations in different planes of motion (units: degrees)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Pelvis mean acceleration	Pelvis mean acceleration in different isometric stabilization exercises measured with a smartphone accelerometer (Units: m/s2)	Baseline - every 2 weeks up to 6 weeks

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Global dynamic balance in anterior direction	Anterior reaching distance during unipodal stance (units: centimeters)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Global dynamic balance in posteromedial direction	Posteromedial reaching distance during unipodal stance (units: centimeters)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Global dynamic balance in posterolateral direction	Posterolateral reaching distance during unipodal stance (units: centimeters)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Mean radial error of center of pressure in upright tandem stance	Postural control in upright tandem stance condition evaluated through the mean radial error of center of pressure displacement (Units: millimeters)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Trunk extensors isometric endurance	Time to maintain a particular position against gravity until exhaustion using Biering-Sorensen test; (Units: seconds)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Trunk flexors isometric endurance	Time to maintain a particular position against gravity until exhaustion using using Plank test; (Units: seconds)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Trunk lateral flexors isometric endurance	Time to maintain a particular position against gravity until exhaustion using Side Bridge test; (Units: seconds)	Baseline - 6 weeks
Neuromuscular function of lower extremity	Triple hop test (Units: centimeters)	Baseline - 6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: CASTO JUAN RECIO
• Collaborators: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Francisco J Vera-Garcia, Professor, Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche, Spain

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): March 10, 2018
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): December 21, 2018
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): December 21, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 19, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 1, 2018
• First Posted (ACTUAL): March 8, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): February 8, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 7, 2019
• Last Verified: February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: smartphone; accelerometer; trunk stability; core training; isometric exercises
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2015/00116/001

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: All Individual Participant Data (IPD) that underlie results in a publication.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available six months after publication
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Data access requests will be reviewed by an external Independent Review Panel. Requestors will be required to sign a Data Access Agreement
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No