Core stability and its impact on upper extremity function in racket sports: A narrative review

Abstract

Over the past decade, core stability exercise has become popular for injury prevention and performance enhancement. Although there is scarcity of literature, core stability has become a well-recognized component in athletic performance and injury prevention. This study aimed to report about the current evidence for the impact of core stability on upper extremity function in racket sports. A structured literature search was conducted in various electronic database including PubMed, Scopus, PEDro, Directory of Research Journals Indexing, Google Scholar, and Embase till April 2019 for this narrative review. We selected studies related to racket sports that measure core stability and upper extremity function published in peer-reviewed journal. A total of 17 studies were shortlisted; however, following the application of exclusion and inclusion criteria, finally five were reviewed. Majority of the studies reported that core stability exercise can enhance upper extremity performance in racket sports. Core stability training is very important for athletic performance enhancement, especially it gives benefits to enhance upper extremity function in racket sports. However, there is still limited evidence regarding this issue; hence, further well-designed research required in this field.