Static alignment of the upper limb and performance of athletes with spinal cord injuries

Abstract

In athletes with spinal cord injuries, due to relying on upper limbs and activities such as driving a wheelchair and repeating specific movement patterns, significant structural changes occur in their upper limbs. Those changes lead to muscle imbalance and disorders in the shoulder girdle and upper limb. Investigation of the relationship between forward head angle, round shoulder, and kyphosis with physical capabilities (power, range of motion, wheelchair propulsion and sitting balance) in wheelchair athletes. 15 male and 13 female wheelchair athletes with Spinal cord injury (age 27.64±7.24) in basketball, pétanque and table tennis were selected. The sagittal view photogrammetry method was used to measure the forward head angle and round shoulder angle. A flexible ruler was used to measure the thoracic kyphosis angle. Additionally, a medicine ball throw to measure power, a goniometer to estimate the range of motion, a 20-meter propulsion test to measure propulsion speed, and a sitting balance test to measure balance were used. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression were applied to analyse the data at the 0.05 significance level. There was only a significant relationship between the round shoulder with the balance in three directions and throwing the ball. However, in other variables, there is no significant relationship with static alignment. Despite the slight difference in the investigated indicators in this study, it is important from a clinical point of view. For coaches, including the necessary preventive and corrective measures in athlete’s training programs is better.