Effects of the Immediate and Long-term Water and Thera Band Exercises on Ground Reaction Forces in People with Pronate Foot During Walking

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of immediate and long-term water and Thera-Band exercises on the ground reaction force in people with pronate foot during walking.

The current research was semi-experimental with a repeated measurement design with a control group. The statistical sample of the present study included 45 male students of Mohaghegh Ardabili University with pronate, with an age range of 18-25 years, who voluntarily and purposefully participated in this study. Subjects were randomly assigned to three groups of exercises in water, exercise with Thera band and control. Walking speed and peak components of ground reaction force were investigated in three pre-test stages, immediately and after 8 weeks of training in water and traband. Bartek force plate with a sampling rate of 1000 Hz was used to record the ground reaction force during walking. Also, analysis of variance with repeated measurements and Bonferroni post hoc test were used to analyze the data at a significance level of p ≤ 0.05.

The results showed that walking speed increased significantly after 8 weeks of training with theraband (p=0.032) and training in water (p=0.025) compared to the pre-test. The vertical component of the ground reaction force in the heel strike phase after 8 weeks of training in water (P=0.002) and theraband (P=0.032) had a significant decrease compared to the pre-test.  Moreover, the vertical component of the ground reaction force in the push-off phase after 8 weeks of training with theraband had a significant increase compared to the pre-test (P=0.015). In addition, the anterior-posterior component of ground reaction force increased significantly in the push-off phase after 8 weeks of water training compared to the pre-test (P=0.001).

According to the results of the research, it can be concluded that the exercises in the water and the traband have long-term clinical and therapeutic effects on people with pronate and can be useful for correcting the walking pattern.