Assessment of body posture with the Moire's photogrammetric method in boys practising judo versus their non-sports-practising peers

Abstract

Summary Objective Regular judo training may induce favourable developmental changes in body posture of boys. The purpose of this work was to assess changes in body posture of 8-year-old boys training judo versus a control group in two repeated assessments. Methods The study included 73 boys aged 8. Thirty-six of them started judo training in sports clubs at the beginning of the school year (JU). The control group included 37 boys attending first and second classes of primary schools, selected at random (NT). Body posture was assessed with the Moire's method, two times, at a 6-month's interval between the two assessments. Distributions of the values of the obtained variables were assessed with the W Shapiro–Wilk test. Non-parametric tests were used for their analysis. The median, mean and SD were calculated. To evaluate the differences between the T1 and T2 results, the Wilcoxon matched-pairs test was used, and to evaluate the intergroup differences both for the first and for the second measurement – the Mann–Whitney U test, adjusted for continuity. Results In group JU, the time factor (T1–T2) had a significant effect (P ≤ 0.05) on changes of 6 body posture indices. In the first assessment, there was a significant difference between the JU and NT groups with respect to 5 body posture indices; in the second assessment, there were only two differences. Conclusion Regular 6-month's judo training in the examined boys resulted in deepening of physiological spinal curvatures, progressing symmetrisation of shoulder blades and spine alignment to the C7–S1 line.