The Impact of Specific Core Stability Training on the Sports Performance of Teenage Competitive Swimmers

Despite the extensive use of core stabilizing exercises in a lot of fields of exercise, their effect on variant sports at the professional level is not clear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of specific core stability training on the sports performance of teenage competitive swimmers.
In this clinical trial study, the participants, 24 teenage girls with a history of more than 6 year of professional exercise in the Tehran Damash team, were selected based on convenience sampling in 2017 and were randomly assigned into two control and experimental groups. The athlets were evaluated in two phases for the endurance of extensor, flexors and lateral trunk muscles, strength of trunk muscles, dynamic balance and swimming speed (50 and 100 m). The participents in the experimnetal group performed core stabilizing exercises for 8 weeks. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.
Comparing the mean of pre/post-test in the experimental group showed a significant difference between the endurance of the trunk extensor/flexors, strength of the core region, dynamic balance and swimming speed (50m and 100m). There was also observed a significant difference between the endurance of trunk flexors (p=0.007), right lateralis (p=0.003), total trunk endurance (p=0.014), dynamic balance (p=0.007), and swimming speed of 50m and 100 m (p=0.001 and p=0.020, respectively) in the two groups.
It seems that under the impact of a special training course of core stabilizing training for swimmers, following considerable alterations in the endurance of core stabilizing muscles, the dynamic balance and the sports performance of the teenage competitive swimmers are improved.