Context: Hypopressive exercise (HE) has been used as an alternative lumbo-pelvic injury prevention program and claimed to be a means of respiratory and flexibility improvement. However, the possible effects of HE on athletic populations and physical performance remain unclear.
Objective: Examine the effects of a HE program on posterior back chain kinematics, thoracic mobility, pulmonary function, and lower lumbar pain in female basketball players over an 8-week training period.
Design: Prospective (1) baseline, (2) midpoint (4 wk), and (3) after 8 weeks.
Setting: Sports field.
Participants: A total of 17 professional female basketball players (mean age 20.7 y, SD: 3.50; body mass index, 21.71, SD: 1.69).
Intervention: Participants performed 8 HE weekly sessions of 30 minutes.
Main outcome measures: Back chain kinematics was assessed with the sit and reach and finger to floor test, and back pain was assessed through numerical rating scale. Respiratory parameters were assessed by spirometry and through thoracic mobility.
Results: The analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the 3 measurement periods for thoracic mobility (P > .01); forced expiratory volume in the first second (P < .05) while no statistical differences were found for the rest of spirometry outcomes. Significant differences were also revealed between baseline and after the intervention for the sit and reach test (P > .01), peak expiratory flow (P = .01), and forced expiratory volume in the first 25 seconds (P = .04). Also, significant differences between weeks were found in levels of lumbar pain (P = .003) and the finger to floor test (P = .002).
Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that a HE program can improve posterior back chain and chest wall kinematics as well as lower lumbar pain levels. However, no gains seem to be observed for the majority of pulmonary variables except for peak expiratory flow and forced expiratory volume in the first seconds.
Keywords: female athletes; kinetic chain; physical therapy modalities; respiratory muscles; spirometry.