Clinical trial NCT05714163: Effects of Ai Chi on Scapular Muscle Activation in Overhead Athletes With Scapular Dyskinesis
Official title: Effects of Ai Chi on Scapular Muscle Activation in Overhead Athletes With Scapular Dyskinesis
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Scapular Dyskinesis
Athletic Injuries
Muscle Weakness
Overuse Injury
Keywords: Ai Chi
Hydrotherapy
Scapular dyskinesis
Overhead athletes
muscle balance
kinetic chain
Lead sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-02-06
Enrollment: 25
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 20
Maximum age (years): 99
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: OTHER
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: The participants are overhead athletes with scapular dyskinesis (SD) who played overhead sports activities at least 3 hours/week.

Brief summary: Scapular dyskinesis (SD) is common in overhead athletes and negatively influence the athletes' performance, increasing the risk of shoulder injury. The kinetic chain (KC) exercises for SD rehabilitation that emphasize importance of core strength and scapula stability during skillful performance. Ai Chi, the aquatic exercises performed in functional positions, which are adequate for power transfer of KC. This study will investigate the effect of KC-based water exercises, Ai Chi, on scapular muscles in overhead athletes with SD.

Detailed description: The purpose of this study is to investigate muscle activations of the upper trapezius (UT), lower trapezius (LT), serratus anterior (SA), latissimus dorsi (LD), and muscle balance ratios of UT/LT, UT/SA I in overhead athletes with SD via KC-based exercise in water and on land. KC-based exercises including the movement patterns of Ai Chi which consist of shoulder flexion/ extension, horizontal abduction/ adduction, internal and external rotation, scapular protraction/retraction combined with spinal rotation.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* The participants are overhead athletes with scapular dyskinesis (SD) who played overhead sports activities at least 3 hours/week.

Exclusion Criteria:

* the individuals who have shoulder/neck pain in recent 3 months (VAS \>7/10)
* severe shoulder trauma (the collision shoulder, shoulder sprains or strains)
* severe scoliosis (Cobb angle \> 25 degrees)
* surgery of upper extremity (the shoulder, cervical spine and elbow) or cervical spine
* peripheral nerve injury or neurological disease (impaired sensation or motor function: numbness, tingle, muscle weakness)
* body mass index (BMI) \>25
* infectious disease (upper respiratory tract infection, skin infection, etc.)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Percentage of maximal voluntary isometric contraction of upper trapezius (UT), lower trapezius (LT), serratus anterior (SA), latissimus dorsi (LD)
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of 10 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Muscle balance ratio of UT/SA
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of 10 months
measure: Muscle balance ratio of UT/LT
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of 10 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Taipei
country: Taiwan
facility: National Taiwan University Hospital
Study officials:
affiliation: National Taiwan University Hospital
name: Jiu-Jenq Lin
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: