EFFECTIVENESS OF VIBRAPOLE VERSUS ELASTIC BAND EXERCISES ON ABDOMINAL STRENGTH AMONG HEALTHY YOUNG INDIVIDUALS

M. Rathi¹, N. Ruparel¹

¹Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Physiotherapy, Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Department of Community Physiotherapy, Pune, India

Background: Core physical fitness training exercises contribute to reducing the risk of musculoskeletal disorder. Abdominal muscles being the stabilizing core muscles maintains the balance of the body by contracting before other muscles during all movements of human body. Vibrapole a new tool to strengthen muscles showed changes in trunk and shoulder muscle activities by providing vibratory stimulus and activating muscle spindle. Any resistance to muscles is also capable of the strength gain. But the most suitable and effective method of strengthening abdominal muscles as core needs to explore.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to compare the strength gain of abdominal muscles as core through either vibrapole or elastic bands using surface Electromyography (EMG) , pressure biofeedback, and 7 stage sit-up test among young healthy individuals.

Methods: Approval was obtained from Institutional Ethics Committee with Ref. No. DYPCPT/IEC/ 29/ 2021 dated 18/05/2021, then this experimental study was registered under CTRI with registration number CTRI/2021/12/038509 dated 08/12/2021. Sample size was calculated considering Confidence Interval = 95%; Power = 80%; Standard Deviation Group A = 6.2, Standard Deviation Group B = 3.1 using Windpipe Software version 11.65. Accordingly 80 healthy young individuals between the age group of 18-24 with grade level 1-2 in 7 stage sit-up test were included. Individuals having BMI < 18.5 and > 28, involved in gym/yoga/aerobics/any exercises since 6 months, history of recent upper limb injuries, having low back pain/spine pathology and with acute conditions like fever, respiratory distress, etc. were excluded from the study. After screening they were randomly allocated into 2 groups: Group A- abdominal strengthening exercise using vibrapole (n= 40) and Group B- abdominal strengthening exercise using an elastic band (n= 40). The intervention was given 3 times/week for 4 weeks to both groups. Progression was given by increasing repetitions of exercise from 10 to 20 after 2 weeks. Outcome measures were surface EMG (QMUP for rectus abdominis and internal oblique muscle), pressure biofeedback, and 7 stage sit-up test, which was assessed before and after intervention. The analysis was done with 95% Confidence Interval using SPSS software (version 20).

Results: Group A and B showed significant improvement (p<0.001) when analyzed individually for surface EMG, pressure biofeedback, and a 7-stage sit-up test. When both groups were compared, Group A showed significantly more improvement in abdominal strength than group B in surface EMG (Mean Difference – Group A: 159.27 +48.84 and Group B 126.32 + 39.96) and n 7-stage sit-up test (Mean Difference – Group A: 2.12 + 0.64 and Group B 1.67 + 0.57) as p<0.01. Pressure Biofeedback showed non-significant difference when both groups were compared (p=0.2201).

Conclusions: This study concludes that abdominal strengthening exercises using Vibrapole are more effective in increasing abdominal muscle strength than elastic band exercises.

Implications: Vibrapole can be used clinically as an efficient tool to improve abdominal strength in healthy young adults. Further study can be done to explore the effectiveness of vibrapole on patients with low back pain and on individuals with various age groups.

Funding acknowledgements: No funding was received for this study

Keywords:
Core Muscles
EMG
Vibrapole

Topics:
Musculoskeletal: spine
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Physiotherapy, Pune, India

Committee: Institutional Ethics Committee

Ethics number: Ref. No. DYPCPT/IEC/ 29/ 2021 dated 18/05/2021,