EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION AREA   

Medicina dello Sport 2020 December;73(4):703-11

DOI: 10.23736/S0025-7826.20.03682-0

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Does a 8-week program based on unstable and reactive exercises influence healthy older women’s motor abilities?

Italo SANNICANDRO ✉

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy

BACKGROUND: The individual autonomy and personal mobility are significantly enhanced by the balance ability. In the literature an open problem is the understanding of the walking exercises and one-foot stance exercises effectiveness, performed using tools or environments/conditions that give unpredictable instability. The aim of this study was to verify the effects of motor task through instability tools and through reactive motor task on motor ability in older women.
METHODS: A sample of 70 elderly women (67.9±5.6 years, 59.6±7.4 kg, 156.1±5.2) participated in the investigation and were randomly divided into 2 groups: N.=27 were included in the instability training group (IG), while N.=26 were included in the control group (CG). The instability training period lasted 8 weeks (3 sessions/week, total = 24 sessions of about 50 min).
RESULTS: The results revealed a significant interaction and main effect of training upon IG vs. CG and T0 vs. T1 in the chair stand test (P=0.006), in the 8-foot-up-and-go test (P=0.000), in the single leg stance test (right and left respectively, P=0.004 and P=0.002), in the 3-m backwards walk test (P=0.000), in the arm curl test (P=0.004), in the tandem walk test (P=0.000), and in the 2 minutes step test (P=0.015).
CONCLUSIONS: The tools that generate instability and the structuring of an environment that determines sudden disturbances increase the over-65-year-old women old balance ability.

KEY WORDS: Prevention and control; Aged; Sports