The Immediate Effects Of Abdominal And Core Exercise On Balance For College-age Dancers

Abstract

Balance is defined as the ability to maintain a stable position while remaining steady. Balance is extremely important to dancers to help prevent injury and to maximize aesthetic and athletic performance. While other studies support the improvement of balance among dancers following a core exercise training program, the effects immediately following one core exercise session are less clear. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the immediate effects of a core and abdominal exercise program on balance for dancers, with the hypothesis that a core exercise program would cause an immediate improvement in balance for college-aged dancers. METHODS: Eighteen female collegiate dancers (19.83 ± 1.58 years, 7-18 years of dance experience) completed two sets of eight exercises, engaging the upper and lower abdominal, obliques, gluteals, and erector spinae muscles. Two static balance tests, the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) test and the Stork Balance Standing test, and two dynamic balance tests, the Y Balance test and the Pirouette test, were conducted prior to and after the core exercises. RESULTS: The core exercise program significantly improved balance results for the Y Balance Test composite score (86.0 ± 6.3% pre vs 88.4 ± 5.3% post, p<0.05) and the BESS Test (22.7 ± 8.0 errors pre vs 16.1 ± 7.0 errors post, p<0.05). There were no significant differences between pre and post intervention scores of the Stork Balance Standing test or the Pirouette test. CONCLUSIONS: Including core exercises in a dancer’s warm-up before practices and performances may have an acute positive effect on balance for dancers, which could translate to improvements in performance. It is unclear if a core exercise program can acutely improve dance skill-specific balance, such as during pirouettes.