The Effect Of Tightrope Walking Exercises Once A Week For Two Weeks On Balance Factors

Abstract

The ability to balance is an important, basic element required to improve actions, such as fall prevention in the elderly, skating, balance beam exercise, and tightrope walking. Validation studies conducted on factors affecting balance are divided in their opinions. PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to elucidate the effect of tightrope walking exercise, performed for 2 min a week for 2 weeks, on the tightrope walking distance, total locus length, unit locus length, unit area locus length, and environmental area. METHODS: Subjects were 12 healthy males (Age: 23.8 ± 4.6 years, Height: 171.2 ± 5.8 cm, Weight: 65.3 ± 13.3 kg). For balance exercises, we attached a 400 cm-long rope at a height of 30 cm to rack, and tested the setup by traversing the tightrope for 2 min barefoot to ensure that there was no chance of slipping. The rope was flat, 5 cm wide, and 0.2 cm thick. Tightrope walking exercises were performed once a week for 2 weeks. To assess balance, we found the 15-s value for each postural sway item for two- and one-legged standing with the eyes open and closed using a stabilometer. Postural sway items were total locus length, unit locus length, unit area locus length, and environmental area. Numeric values are all expressed as the mean ± the standard deviation and comparisons of the values from before and after the exercise period were processed by the paired t-test. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. RESULTS: Tightrope walking distances increased significantly (p<0.05) from 219 ± 71 cm to 424 ± 210 cm following 2 weeks of tightrope walking exercise. During two-legged standing with the eyes closed, the total locus length and unit locus length significantly decreased (483.0 ± 76.9 mm to 437.8 ± 65.4 mm and 32.2 ± 5.1 mm to 29.2 ± 4.4 mm, p<0.05). During one-legged standing on the right leg with the eyes closed, a significant decrease was observed in both the total locus length and unit locus length (1525.2 ± 384.5 mm to 1168.2 ± 235.3 mm and 101.7 ± 25.6 mm to 77.9 ± 15.7 mm, p<0.05), whereas during one-legged standing on the left leg with the eyes open, unit area locus length significantly decreased (3.8 ± 0.8 mm to 3.0 ± 1.0 mm, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Tightrope walking exercise affected both dynamic balance through tightrope walking and static balance through one-legged standing.