Clinical trial NCT02218086: Effectivity of Slackline-Training in Physiotherapy
Official title: Effectivity of Slackline-Training in Physiotherapy - a Randomised Controlled Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Healthy Volunteers
Persons With no Known Significant Health Problems
Keywords: postural control
postural balance
slackline
Lead sponsor: THIM - die internationale Hochschule für Physiotherapie
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
First posted: 2014-08-15
Enrollment: 50
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 30
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Intervention model description: different protocol-arms: crossover for comparing slackline vs. wobble board vs. flamingo balance task parallel for slackline training vs. enhanced standing-on-1-leg training
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Slacklines have been established in the last few years as a training equipment in sports such as climbing, skiing and others to increase postural control. Furthermore, slacklines are used in physiotherapy in terms of stabilizing training such as wobbling boards.

However, if slackline training is effective in rehabilitation has not been investigated yet. Therefore, to goal of this study will be to investigate the effectivity of slackline training in physiotherapy compared to a wobbling board with a single tilting axis.

Outcomes will be electromyographic-data and the kinetics of the whole body.

Detailed description: Comparing beginners pre-training (less than 1 hour of slackline training) to post-training (9 times 30 minutes of individual, controlled training) to investigate the effects of balance training on a slackline.

Comparing beginners (less than 1 hour of slackline training) to professionals (more than 100 hours of slackline training) to investigate differences in balance strategies.

Comparing professionals during slacklining under two different conditions of their visual anchor: fix vs. moving. This to investigate the role of the visual system during balance reactions.

Comparing slackline training versus a demanding training standing-on-1-leg. We do compare Y-balance-performance, performance on the MFT challenge disc, each compared with simultanousely recording body Sway (lower trunk) with SwayStar.

Muscle activity will be investigated by absolute amplitude (mV) and frequency to get an idea of which muscle fibers are acting during the task and how the activation pattern may change through motor learning.

Body kinematics should show movement strategies especially differences in roll and pitch control of the body.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* young healthy, 18-30 years old
* small operations on muscle-skeletal-system on upper extremities
* birth control pill

Exclusion Criteria:

* any actual injuries on lower extremities
* injuries on lower extremities less than one year back
* operations of muscle-skeletal-system at shoulder/neck, trunk/pelvis and lower extremities
* fear of falling
* any medications
* cardiac pacemaker or cardiac arrhythmia
* pregnancy
* skeletal anomaly
* appendicitis less then 2 years back

Primary outcomes:
measure: Muscle activity using surface electromyography device. 1. measuring amplitude of muscle activation in mV (millivolt) 2. measuring frequency pattern of muscle activation to distinguish /detect activation of slow and fast muscle fibers
timeFrame: average of 6 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Whole body kinematics (composite outcome measure): a. calculating joint angles [deg & deg/s] b. calculating absolute and relative body part movements (such as trunk, pelvis, head): tilts & translations [mm, mm/s]
timeFrame: average of 6 weeks
Other outcomes:
measure: measuring the duration of a trial (if less than 30 sec): measured in sec
timeFrame: average of 6 weeks
measure: Y-balance-performance: measured in cm
timeFrame: average of 6 weeks
measure: MFT challenge disc: measured in a score
timeFrame: average of 6 weeks
Locations:
city: Landquart
country: Switzerland
facility: Thim van der Laan University College Physiotherapy
state: GR
Study officials:
affiliation: THIM - die internationale Hochschule für Physiotherapie
name: Ursula M Kueng, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
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