Supplementary Neuromuscular Rehabilitation During Acute Concussion Recovery

September 2, 2026 updated by: Northern Illinois University
Approximately 1.6 to 3.8 million mild traumatic brain injuries, or concussions, occur yearly in the United States. Although most individuals progress through return-to-activity (RTA) using symptom-guided aerobic and functional activity, current protocols do not directly target neuromuscular deficits linked to persistent movement alterations after concussion. These deficits include altered gait, reduced movement efficiency, and biomechanical changes that persist beyond symptom resolution and increase subsequent risk of musculoskeletal injury. This creates a critical clinical gap: patients are cleared using symptom-tolerance protocols, while concussion-related neuromuscular impairments remain untreated during the period when recovery behaviors are established. The proposed project addresses this gap by testing a low-cost, equipment-free neuromuscular rehabilitation strategy added to standard RTA during acute concussion recovery. The intervention applies the six principles of clinical Pilates, concentration, control, centering, precision, flow, and breathing, through ten therapeutic movements designed to improve posture, flexibility, balance, strength, muscle control, body awareness, and movement confidence.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

30

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Tyler A Wood, PhD, LAT, ATC
  • Phone Number: 815-753-1418
  • Email: twood1@niu.edu

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Illinois
      • DeKalb, Illinois, United States, 60115
        • Northern Illinois University
        • Contact:
          • Tyler A Wood, PhD, LAT, ATC
          • Phone Number: 815-753-1418
          • Email: twood1@niu.edu

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • aged 18 to 24 years old
  • be a registered member of an intercollegiate sports team
  • have received a medically confirmed concussion within 7 days of the initial study visit.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • moderate or severe traumatic brain injury
  • red-flag signs or symptoms requiring urgent medical evaluation
  • current lower-extremity injury that prevents safe walking or therapeutic exercise
  • a neurological or vestibular disorder unrelated to concussion that independently affects balance or gait
  • an uncorrected visual impairment that prevents completion of testing
  • any medical condition that prevents participation in symptom-guided physical activity

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Supplementary Neuromuscular Rehabilitation
Behavioral: Exercise
The intervention will include 10 standardized exercises: pelvic tilts, bridging, seated spinal twists, bent-knee fallouts, supine toe taps, clamshells, side-lying leg lifts, supine side-to-sides, quadruped arm and leg reach, and standing roll downs. Not every exercise will be performed during every session. Exercise selection will follow a prespecified intervention framework designed to provide consistent exposure to the major movement domains of the protocol while permitting symptom-guided modification. The standardized protocol will identify the exercises eligible for each stage of progression and the criteria required to advance to more demanding movements. Research personnel will select exercises from the appropriate stage based on the participant's current tolerance, symptom response, movement quality, and prior session performance.
Other Names:
  • Supplementary Neuromuscular Rehabilitation
Active Comparator: Standard Return to Activity
Behavioral: Return to Activity Progression
A research team member will attend each RTA session to collect symptom ratings immediately before and after the session. Assessments will occur whenever the athlete completes an RTA session, up to five days per week, between days 7 and 35 after concussion. These repeated observations will characterize symptom response to standard RTA throughout recovery.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Symptom Burden
Time Frame: Day 7 to 35
Symptom Burdent
Day 7 to 35
Tandem Gait Performance
Time Frame: Day 7 to 35
Tandem Gait time to complete
Day 7 to 35
Recovery Time
Time Frame: Day 7 to 35
Time to Recovery
Day 7 to 35

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Northern Illinois University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

August 2, 2027

Primary Completion (Estimated)

January 31, 2030

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 31, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 31, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 2, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

September 3, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 3, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 2, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HS27-0032

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The following data will be available through the NICDH DASH Center: Age, sex at birth, standard height, measured weight, overall symptom score, tandem gait time value, and time to recovery.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ICF

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Subscribe