Effect of local, comprehensive and combined exercises on the weakness of abdominal muscles of schoolgirls

Various local and comprehensive exercises are recommended to strengthen abdominal muscles that play an important role in core stability. Few studies have compared the effectiveness of these exercises in populations yet. Thus, the aim of this study was investigating the effect of local, comprehensive and combined exercises on the weakness of abdominal muscles of schoolgirls.

For this purpose, 60 non-athlete 15-17 years old schoolgirls selected by purposive sampling then randomly divided into four groups including: local, comprehensive, combined and control. Experimental groups performed training programs for 12 weeks. Sit-up and Double Straight Leg Lowering (DSLL) tests were used to evaluate abdominal muscles endurance and strength, respectively.

Results showed that the abdominal muscles weakness significantly improved after exercise programs, so that the pre and post-test mean difference of abdominal muscles’ endurance and strength in local, comprehensive and combined exercises were significant (p < 0.05). MANCOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc test showed that comprehensive and combined exercises improved endurance and strength of the abdominal muscles better than that of local exercises (p < 0.05).

The comprehensive and combined exercise protocols showed better results in endurance and strength tests in terms of abdominal muscles strengthening. The results of this study support better effectiveness of comprehensive and combined exercises in optimizing performance. It seems that the better effectiveness of the combined exercises is due to the comprehensive exercises involved in. Therefore, it is recommended to therapists and coaches to perform comprehensive exercises more than the others for improving abdominal muscles’ endurance and strength.