Abstract
Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of a preseason strength and conditioning “Prehab” program on decreasing non-contact injuries and improving outcome measures of strength, agility, and balance in collegiate men’s and women’s basketball players, men’s and women’s soccer players, and women’s volleyball players. Methods: Forty-five National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athletes participated. Participants performed a 10- week Prehab program consisting of five progressive levels advancing every two weeks. Exercises included lumbopelvic stabilization, scapular stabilization, plyometric training, and sport specific exercises. Test measures were taken before and after the Prehab intervention. Outcome measures included vertical jump height, number of push-ups, front/lateral plank time, single limb stance time, back extensor endurance time, thoracic spine rotation range of motion, number of single leg squats, Cross Hop test, Single Leg Crossover test, and closed kinetic chain upper extremity stability test (CKCUEST), as well as the number of non-contact injuries.Results: After completion of the Prehab program, participants showed significant improvement in vertical jump height, number of push-ups, front/lateral plank time, single limb stance time on the right, back extensor endurance time, thoracic spine rotation to the left, Single Leg Crossover test, and CKCUEST. Additionally, all other outcome measures showed a trend toward improvement. Participants experienced a total of 42 inseason repetitive stress injuries in the intervention year and 38 in the year after the intervention. Conclusion: Participation in the “Prehab” program led to a reduced number of in-season non-contact injuries and significant improvements in 9 of the 11 outcomes measures of strength, agility, and balance in collegiate athletes. The lack of significance in some of the outcome measures may be due to the small sample size. A repeat of this study using a randomized-control design with a larger sample size may yield more significant results.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.