Effects Of Pilates Exercise On Core Stability And Joint Flexibility In College Athletes

Abstract

Although Pilates improves flexibility, balance, and posture of symptomatic elderly or sedentary middle-aged adults, there has been little focus on studying the effect of Pilates in young athletes. PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine whether Pilates exercise improve core stability and joint flexibility in college athletes. METHODS: Fifteen healthy college students (control group) and 15 female college athletes (athlete group) participated in this study. Each student engaged in a 30-min Pilates session with a licensed instructor once a week over 12 weeks. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) was used to evaluate core stability and joint flexibility before and after this intervention. The FMS focuses on seven fundamental movements: shoulder mobility (SM), hurdle step (HS), in-line lunge (ILL), active straight leg raise, trunk stability push up, rotary stability (RS), and deep squat. A repeated-measures ANOVA was performed to compare the groups (control group vs. athlete group). RESULTS: Although there were no significant between-group differences, the results indicated significant main effect for the Pilates intervention (F=62.5, p < 0.001, η2=0.82), Pilates intervention × FMS interaction (F=35.6, p < 0.001, η2=0.72), and FMS (F=2519.6, p < 0.001, η2=0.99). After 12-week intervention, SM (before: 2.37 ± 0.2 vs. after: 2.73 ± 0.1, p < 0.05), HS (before: 2.30 ± 0.1 vs. after: 2.70 ± 0.1, p < 0.01), ILL (before: 2.10 ± 0.1 vs. after: 2.30 ± 0.1, p < 0.01), RS (before: 2.13 ± 0.1 vs. after: 2.63 ± 0.1, p < 0.001), and total score (before: 16.17 ± 0.4 vs. after: 18.13 ± 0.3, p < 0.001) had significantly improved. CONCLUSION: Pilates exercise is effective for improving FMS scores, strengthening core stability, and flexibility for healthy controls and college athletes. Supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18K10973.