Comparing the Core Muscles Endurance and Postural Sway of Iranian Taekwondo Female Athletes With and Without Hyperlordosis

Postural sway is evaluated based on changes in the body's center of pressure and is directly related to postural control and balance. Several factors are involved in the proper control of postural sways and, as a result, proper maintenance of balance, the most important of which is core stability. Weakness of core muscles causes an interruption in the transfer of energy from the trunk and limbs to each other, and this leads to decreased sports performance and increased risk of injury. Hyperlordosis is one of the disorders that can affect the endurance of core muscles. In some sports, such as taekwondo, this is of great importance. The present study aims to assess whether there is any difference in postural sway and core muscle endurance between taekwondo female athletes with or without hyperlordosis in Iran.

The study population consists of all professional Iranian female taekwondo athletes, of whom 60 were purposefully selected and divided into two groups of 30: With hyperlordosis (Mean age: 22.17±2.35 years, mean height: 166±3.95 cm, mean weight: 55.37±5.53 kg) and without hyperlordosis (Mean age: 20.63±2.38 years, mean height: 165±4.23 cm, mean weight: 53.7±4.91 kg). Postural sway was measured by the foot pressure distribution on a single leg. The core muscle endurance was measured by the McGill test. Independent t-test was used for examining the difference in the results. The significance level was set at 0.05.

Independent t-test results showed a significant difference between the two groups only in endurance of abdominal flexor muscles (P=0.013). No significant difference in endurance of other core muscles (P>0.05), postural sway based on two factors of path length (P=0.30) and movement area (P=0.16) were observed between the two groups.

The endurance of the abdominal flexor muscles in taekwondo female athletes with hyperlordosis is poor. Considering the possibility of further changes in the core muscles which can affect other areas of the body, longitudinal and follow-up studies are recommended on this group of athletes.