Effect of a course of neuromuscular training on static and dynamic balance of soldiers at risk for lower limb injury

Weakness in the balance system leads to body instability, increased passive musculoskeletal lode, and consequently, increased likelihood of loss of balance and fall. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of neuromuscular exercises on static and dynamic balance of in-service soldiers who were exposed to injury.

This study was a semi-experimental study. The statistical population of this study consisted of soldiers (20-26 years old) who were at risk of injury, and 20 of whom were purposefully selected according to inclusion criteria and divided into experimental and control groups. The static and dynamic balance were measured using the Roomberg test and the adjusted star test, respectively. Then the exercise protocol was performed by the experimental group for six weeks (three sessions per week). Data were analyzed using dependent t-test and covariance analysis.

The results showed significant improvement in experimental group for static balance (with open and closed eyes) (p=0.001) as well as dynamic balance (with Y-test for anterior, internal posterior, and external posterior directions) (p=0.001) than the control group.

The present study showed that six weeks of neuromuscular supervised exercises using wobble board and slider board significantly improve static and dynamic balance performance of soldiers at exposed to lower extremity injury.