Physical Therapy Korea (한국전문물리치료학회지)

Korean Research Society of Physical Therapy (한국전문물리치료학회)
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Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation of Abdominal Muscles to Improve Standing Balance

  • Je, Jeongwoo (Injury Prevention and Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Physical Therapy, Yonsei University) ;
  • Choi, Woochol Joseph (Injury Prevention and Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Physical Therapy, Yonsei University)
  • Received : 2022.10.23
  • Accepted : 2022.11.04
  • Published : 2022.11.20
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Abstract

Background: Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is used for muscle strengthening. While voluntary muscle contraction follows Henneman et al.'s size principle, the NMES-induced muscle training disrespects the neurophysiology, which may lead to unwanted changes (i.e., declined balance ability). Objects: We examined how the balance was affected by abdominal muscle training with the NMES. Methods: Fifteen young adults (10 males and 5 females) aged between 21 and 30 received abdominal muscle strengthening with NMES for 23 minutes. Before and after the training, participants' balance was measured through one leg standing on a force plate with eyes open or closed. Outcome variables included mean distance (MDIST), root mean square distance (RDIST), total excursion (TOTEX), mean velocity (MVELO), and 95% confidence circle area (AREA) of center of pressure data. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was used to test if these outcome variables were associated with time (pre and post) and vision. Results: All outcome variables were not associated with time (p > 0.05). However, all outcome variables were associated with vision (p = 0.0001), and MVELO and TOTEX were 52.4% (45.5 mm/s versus 95.6 mm/s) and 52.4% (364.1 mm versus 764.5 mm) smaller, respectively, in eyes open than eyes closed (F = 55.8, p = 0.0005; F = 55.8, p = 0.0005). Furthermore, there was no interaction between time and vision (F = 0.024, p = 0.877). Conclusion: Despite the different neurophysiology of muscle contraction, abdominal muscle strengthening with NMES did not affect balance.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by the "Brain Korea 21 FOUR Project" and the Korean Research Foundation for the Department of Physical Therapy at Yonsei University.

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