Due to the nature of football, players perform a series of unstable movements during the game. In this context, balance skill is important for football players. The aim of the study is to examine the ...effects of balance training on football specific technical skills.22 male amateur football players competing in the 1st amateur league participated by filling a "Informed Volunteer Form". Participants were randomly divided into Balance Training Group (BTG) and Classic Football Training Group (CFTG). Before the training session, physical characteristics such as age, height, body weight, as well as Flamingo balance, Star balance, Yeagley (Bounce), Mor-Christian football general ability (drilling, shooting and short-distance passing) and longdistance passing tests were applied. While the 6-week classical football training protocol was applied to the CFTGgroup, additional balance training was performed to the BTGgroup. The total training loads of both training groups were equal. The analysis of the data was evaluated according to the significance level of p<0.05 in the SPSS 20 statistical program. The pre-test and post-test values of the BTGand CFTGgroups were recorded, and the "Paired Samples and Independent Samples Test" was applied to the data with normal distribution, and the "Wilcoxon and Mann Whitney Test" for unnormal distribution. As a result, it was hypothesized that the balance training methods would improve the technical skills of football players in the dominant and non-dominant legs.As a result of this study, it was seen that the balance training methods applied in the research improved the technical skills of the football players in the dominant and non-dominant legs, and there was a statistically significant differences p<0,05). As a result of the findings weobtained in our study, the balance training method we used; It was seen that the research group developed both balance skills and technical skills in the dominant and non-dominant legs, and this development was a statistically significant improvement.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of 6 months of specific balance training included in endurance-resistance program on postural balance in haemodialysis (HD) patients.
...Methods: Forty-nine male patients undergoing HD were randomly assigned to an intervention group (balance training included in an endurance-resistance training, n = 26) or a control group (resistance-endurance training only, n = 23). Postural control was assessed using six clinical tests; Timed Up and Go test, Tinetti Mobility Test, Berg Balance Scale, Unipodal Stance test, Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test and Activities Balance Confidence scale.
Results: All balance measures increased significantly after the period of rehabilitation training in the intervention group. Only the Timed Up and Go, Berg Balance Scale, Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test and Activities Balance Confidence scores were improved in the control group. The ranges of change in these tests were greater in the balance training group.
Conclusions: In HD patients, specific balance training included in a usual endurance-resistance training program improves static and dynamic balance better than endurance-resistance training only.
Implications for rehabilitation
Rehabilitation using exercise in haemodialysis patients improved global mobility and functional abilities.
Specific balance training included in usual endurance resistance training program could lead to improved static and dynamic balance.
Balance training is essential for physical rehabilitation procedures, as it can improve functional mobility and enhance cognitive coordination. However, conventional balance training methods may have ...limitations in terms of motivation, real-time objective feedback, and personalization, which a virtual reality (VR) setup may provide a better alternative. In this work, we present an immersive VR training environment for lower extremity balance rehabilitation with real-time guidance and feedback. The VR training environment immerses the user in a 3D ice rink model where a virtual coach (agent) leads them through a series of balance poses, and the user controls a trainee avatar with their own movements. We developed two coaching styles: positive-reinforcement and autonomous-supportive, and two viewpoints of the trainee avatar: first-person and third-person. The proposed environment was evaluated in a user study with healthy, non-clinical participants (n=16, 24.4 ± 5.7 years old, 9 females). Our results show that participants showed stronger performance in the positive-reinforcement style compared to the autonomous-supportive style. Additionally, in the third-person viewpoint, the participants exhibited more stability in the positive-reinforcement style compared to the autonomous-supportive style. For viewpoint, participants exhibited stronger performance in the first-person viewpoint compared to third-person in the autonomous-supportive style, while they were comparable in the positive-reinforcement style. We observed no significant effects on the foot height and number of mistakes. Furthermore, we report the analysis of user performance with balance training poses and subjective measures based on questionnaires to assess the user experience, usability, and task load. The proposed VR balance training could offer an interactive, adaptive, and engaging environment and open new potential research directions for lower extremity rehabilitation.
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•Immersive VR environment for guided balance training for lower extremity rehabilitation.•Effects of coaching style and viewpoint of trainee avatar on balance performance and user experience are presented.•Evaluation results reveal potential benefits, limitations, and research directions.•The proposed VR environment introduces a new approach for balance training rehabilitation and builds a foundation for future clinical study.
Immersive virtual reality can expose humans to novel training and sensory environments, but motor training with virtual reality has not been able to improve motor performance as much as motor ...training in real-world conditions. An advantage of immersive virtual reality that has not been fully leveraged is that it can introduce transient visual perturbations on top of the visual environment being displayed. The goal of this study was to determine whether transient visual perturbations introduced in immersive virtual reality modify electrocortical activity and behavioral outcomes in human subjects practicing a novel balancing task during walking. We studied three groups of healthy young adults (5 male and 5 female for each) while they learned a balance beam walking task for 30 min under different conditions. Two groups trained while wearing a virtual reality headset, and one of those groups also had half-second visual rotation perturbations lasting ~10% of the training time. The third group trained without virtual reality. We recorded high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and movement kinematics. We hypothesized that virtual reality training with perturbations would increase electrocortical activity and improve balance performance compared with virtual reality training without perturbations. Our results confirmed the hypothesis. Brief visual perturbations induced increased theta spectral power and decreased alpha spectral power in parietal and occipital regions and improved balance performance in posttesting. Our findings indicate that transient visual perturbations during immersive virtual reality training can boost short-term motor learning by inducing a cognitive change, minimizing the negative effects of virtual reality on motor training. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We found that transient visual perturbations in virtual reality during balance training can boost short-term motor learning by inducing a cognitive change, overcoming the negative effects of immersive virtual reality. As a result, subjects training in immersive virtual reality with visual perturbations have equivalent performance improvement as training in real-world conditions. Visual perturbations elicited cortical responses in occipital and parietal regions and may have improved the brain's ability to adapt to variations in sensory input.
•Dual task training (DTT) improves balance in older adults.•DTT enhances balance in older adults compared to different interventions.•DTT provides notable benefit in older adults compared to no ...intervention.
Our review aims to analyze the effect of dual-task training (DTT) on balance in healthy older adults.
PubMed, EbscoHost, Web of Science (WOS), Scopus, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EBSCO Open Dissertations, ULAKBIM (TR Index) and YOK (Council of Higher Education Thesis Center) databases and the gray literature were searched. The quality of the studies was assessed with the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and statistical analysis of the data was performed with Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) software. A funnel plot and Egger's test were used to detect publication bias. Fourteen studies with 691 participants were included.
According to the results of our study, DTT was found to have a significant benefit on balance in older adults than the non-intervention group (standardized mean difference (SMD): -0.691: -1.153, -0.229, 95 % confidence interval (CI)). Furthermore, DTT was superior to different intervention groups in improving balance in older adults (SMD: -0.229: -0.441, -0.016, 95 % CI).
The findings of this review suggest that DTT may be an effective intervention to improve balance in healthy older adults.
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To accommodate the gait and balance disorder of the elderly with age progression and the occurrence of various senile diseases, this paper proposes a novel gait balance training robot (G-Balance) ...based on a six degree-of-freedom parallel platform. Using the platform movement and IMU wearable sensors, two training modes, i.e., active and passive, are developed to achieve vestibular stimulation. Virtual reality technology is applied to achieve visual stimulation. In the active training mode, the elderly actively exercises to control the posture change of the platform and the switching of the virtual scene. In the passive training mode, the platform movement is combined with the virtual scene to simulate bumpy environments, such as earthquakes, to enhance the human anti-interference ability. To achieve a smooth switching of the scene, continuous speed and acceleration of the platform motion are required in some scenarios, in which a trajectory planning algorithm is applied. This paper describes the application of the trajectory planning algorithm in the balance training mode and the optimization of jerk (differential of acceleration) based on cubic spline planning, which can reduce impact on the joint and enhance stability.
Recent years have witnessed wide applications of exergames to balance training among the older adults. However, research concerning balance training with the use of Kinect for Xbox has remained ...scarce. While previous studies have shown the positive effects of exergames on improving balance and preventing falling among the older adults, there has been a paucity of empirical evidence supporting the superiority of Kinect exercise to conventional exercise over balance training among the older adults. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the feasibility, safety, and effectiveness of Kinect exercise against conventional exercise over balance training among the community older adults.
A total of 20 participants were randomly assigned to the Kinect Exercise Group (N = 10) or the Conventional Exercise Group (N = 10) for a 5-week balance training (45 minutes a time, 2 times a week). Assessor blinding was employed to assess the participants' performance before and after the treatment, including 30-Second Chair Stand Test (30-sec CST), Timed Up and Go (TUG), Functional Reach Test (FRT), and One-Leg Stance Test (OLST) respectively with eyes open and closed. Subjective feeling of the intensity of pain and side effects were recorded throughout the investigation period. Nonparametric statistics was used for data analysis.
Within-group comparison between the pre-test and post-test indicated that significant differences existed in all of the 5 tests (30-sec CST, TUG, FRT, OLST with eyes open, and OLST with eyes closed) in the Kinect exercise group. To the Conventional exercise group, however, significant differences were only observed in 30-sec CST, FRT and OLST with eyes open. With regard to between-group comparison, significant differences were only found in FRT.
Such results indicated that both treatments were helpful in improving the participants' balance performance, that Kinect exercise was more effective in terms of overall balance ability, and that Kinect exercise was particularly beneficial to functional reach enhancement in comparison with traditional exercise. Kinect exercise could be a feasible, safe, and effective alternative for dynamic balance training among older adults.
Postural control is one of the primary body functions for fall prevention. Unexpected perturbation-based balance training is effective for improving postural control. However, the effect of ...perturbation-based training using assistive devices on muscle activity and co-contraction for standing balance is still unclear. This training is also difficult to perform easily because it requires large instruments or expert guidance. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effect of perturbation-based balance training using a wearable balance training device (WBTD) on postural control. In this study, fourteen healthy young adult males were assigned to either a WBTD group or a sham group. In the intervention session, participants in the WBTD group were perturbed either left or right direction at random timing by the WBTD during tandem stance balance training. Participants in the Sham group did not receive external perturbation during tandem stance balance training. Before and after the intervention session, participants of both groups underwent unexpected lateral perturbation postural control testing (pre- and post-test). The normalized integral of electromyography (IEMG), co-contraction index (CCI), and center of pressure (COP) parameters were measured in the pre- and post-test. Experimental results showed that the WBTD group in the post-test significantly decreased left Gluteus Medius IEMG, CCI of both Gluteus Medius, and peak <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text {COP}_{\text {ML}} </tex-math></inline-formula> velocity, compared to those of the pre-test (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{p} \lt 0.001 </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{p} \,\, =0.024 </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{p} \,\, =0.031 </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively). We conclude that balance training using WBTD could improve flexible postural control adjustment via cooperative muscle activation.
Ageing induces a decline in GABAergic intracortical inhibition, which seems to be associated not only with decremental changes in well‐being, sleep quality, cognition and pain management but also ...with impaired motor control. So far, little is known regarding whether targeted interventions can prevent the decline of intracortical inhibition in the primary motor cortex in the elderly. Therefore, the present study investigated whether age‐related cortical dis‐inhibition could be reversed after 6 months of balance learning and whether improvements in postural control correlated with the extent of reversed dis‐inhibition. The results demonstrated that intracortical inhibition can be upregulated in elderly subjects after long‐term balance learning and revealed a correlation between changes in balance performance and intracortical inhibition. This is the first study to show physical activity‐related upregulation of GABAergic inhibition in a population with chronic dis‐inhibition and may therefore be seminal for many pathologies in which the equilibrium between inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters is disturbed.
Key points
Ageing induces a decline in GABAergic intracortical inhibition.
So far, little is known regarding whether targeted interventions can prevent the decline of intracortical inhibition in the primary motor cortex in the elderly.
After 6 months of balance learning, intracortical inhibition can be upregulated in elderly subjects.
The results of this study also revealed a correlation between changes in balance performance and intracortical inhibition.
This is the first study to show physical activity‐related upregulation of GABAergic inhibition in a population with chronic dis‐inhibition.
figure legend At baseline, older adults (range 66–81 years) showed impaired balancing performance and reduced intracortical inhibition within the primary motor cortex (M1) when compared to younger adults. Reduced levels of intracortical inhibition are known to be associated with a decrease of motor control and balance. In this study, 40 older adults were allocated randomly to one of two groups: a balance learning (BL) group and a control group (CON). The BL intervention group followed a challenging 1 h balance learning protocol for 6 months twice a week. After 6 months of training, the BL group showed an increase in intracortical inhibition within M1 (+16.63 percentage points) and an increase in balancing performance (+15%), when compared to the CON group. In addition, a correlation between behavioural (balance performance) and neurophysiological (intracortical inhibition within M1) adaptations was found, showing that the participants with the largest adaptations in intracortical inhibition also showed the greatest improvements in balance performance. This study shows for the first time that healthy elderly adults are able to upregulate their levels of intracortical inhibition within M1 after long‐term BL.
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