Abstract
The percentage of spine misalignment increases during the childhood and adolescence stages. The Pilates method has been associated with an improvement in the sagittal spine disposition, but no studies have been conducted on adolescents. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a 9-month Pilates exercise program (PEP) on hamstring extensibility and sagittal spinal curvatures on adolescents. This randomised controlled trial included 236 adolescents. The experimental group (EG) received a PEP (9 months, 2 sessions/week, 15 minutes/session). The control group (CG) did not receive any intervention. Hamstring extensibility was measured with the passive and active straight leg raise and toe-touch tests. Sagittal spinal curvatures and pelvic tilt was assessed in relaxed standing, active alignment and toe-touch test positions. The EG had significant changes in hamstring extensibility, lumbar curvature and pelvic tilt in standing sagittal curvature. The CG became significantly worse in thoracic kyphosis in standing. This study provides evidence of nine-months of a PEP increased the hamstring extensibility; averted the increase of the thoracic curvature, and decreased the curvature of the lumbar lordosis and pelvic tilt in standing position; avoided a greater increase of thoracic curvature in active alignment in standing position; and avoided the increase of thoracic curvature in trunk flexion.
Highlights
The percentage of spine misalignment increases during the childhood and adolescence stages
Adolescence is a critical period for sagittal disposition, as several longitudinal studies have found that there is an increase in thoracic kyphosis especially in men; lumbar lordosis especially in women; and anterior pelvic tilt during this developmental stage[1,2], some cross-sectional studies have found that the changes during childhood and adolescence can be dependent on sex and anthropometric variables[3]
There was significant increase in the values reached in the toe-touch (TT) test, the passive straight leg raise (P-SLR), and the active straight leg raise (A-SLR); a significant reduction was found in the lumbar lordosis and pelvic tilt both in standing position, pelvic tilt in active alignment in standing position; and a significant increase of the lumbar kyphosis in the TT test in the experimental group (EG), with effect size between low-moderate and very high
Summary
The percentage of spine misalignment increases during the childhood and adolescence stages. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a 9-month Pilates exercise program (PEP) on hamstring extensibility and sagittal spinal curvatures on adolescents. This randomised controlled trial included 236 adolescents. This study provides evidence of nine-months of a PEP increased the hamstring extensibility; averted the increase of the thoracic curvature, and decreased the curvature of the lumbar lordosis and pelvic tilt in standing position; avoided a greater increase of thoracic curvature in active alignment in standing position; and avoided the increase of thoracic curvature in trunk flexion. These few studies involved adolescents with non-structural sagittal spine curvatures that were more than normal and included a short intervention (8 weeks), so a decrease of the effects after a period of detraining is expected[23], maintaining the program during the academic year but with a lower volume of training is recommended[24]
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