Acute effect of different warm up protocols on static and dynamic balance indices and balance the vault in skilled female gymnast

The aim of this study was to investigate the acute effects of different warm-up protocols on static and dynamic balance indices and balance the vault in skilled female gymnast. Twenty four skilled female gymnasts (mean age 9.66­±­1.43 years(were selected. Subjects have been randomly divided into three groups: general warm-up (control), general warm-up and static stretching and general warm-up and dynamic stretching. The first protocol included a 10 minute general warming up, the second protocol involved general warm-up followed by the use of static stretching and the third protocol included general warm-up followed by dynamic stretching the muscles involved in performing the balance whip. Before and after the activity, the indicators of the equilibrium of anterior-posterior and internal-external pressure fluctuations range, and track length of the anterior-posterior and internal-external pressure center in four static and dynamic situations (both with one leg, and with two legs) were investigated using a dynamometer system equipped with 7 cameras and Kistler force plate. The whip balance performance with dynamic warm-up protocol was significantly higher than general warm-up protocol (P=0.001) and static warm-up protocol (P=0.01). Also the whip balance performance significantly decreased after the static warm-up protocol (P=0.005), but no significant differences were observed in the control group (P ≥0.05). Static balance with both feet in the dynamic warm-up protocol showed no significant difference in compare to general warm-up (P=0.07) and static warm-up protocols (P=0.06) (P ≥0.05). Also between the static warm-up protocol and the control group no significant difference was observed (P ≥0.05). On the other hand, no significant difference was observed between the static balance with one foot, dynamic balance with two feet and dynamic balance with one foot (P ≥0.05). Our study showed that dynamic warm-up resulted in further improvement in whip balance in compare to static and general warm-ups. Also, in clinical point of view, dynamic warm-up, in comparison with static and general warm-ups, leaded to further improvement in dynamic and static balance indices; although, these findings were not statically significant.