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Background: Obesity is associated with various physiological changes which decrease the cardiovascular fitness and flexibility and slows person activity. Core muscles strengthening improve respiratory efficiency and activity of the diaphragm. Hence this study aimed to examine effect of core strengthening on cardiovascular fitness and flexibility in obese individuals. Methods: Experimental study of 6 weeks was carried out among 16 people who were selected by purposive sampling there was 1 drop out. Subjects between 18-25 years, male & female with BMI ?25 kg/m2-35 kg/m2 were selected. Pre reading were taken by measuring Queen's college step test, Modified sit and reach test, Shoulder and arm flexibility test which were recorded at week 1st, week 3rd and of the same at 6th week. Core strengthening exercise were given targeting 5 regions upper & middle abs, oblique, transverses, lower abs were progressed every 2 weeks by increasing repetition and difficulty level e.g., unstable surface (Swiss ball). Results: A significant improvement was found in readings of VO2max (Queen's College step test), modified sit and reach test, shoulder & wrist flexibility test (p<0.0001). Conclusions: The study showed positive result with (p<0.05) which suggests that core strengthening improves cardiovascular fitness and flexibility in obese individuals.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of core strengthening on trunk balance in patients with subacute stroke. METHOD: Fifty-nine subacute hemiparetic stroke in-patients participated in this study. All patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the control group and the experimental group. Both groups received the same conventional physical therapies for 4 weeks. The experimental group received an additional core strengthening program (CSP). Korean mini-mental state examination (K-MMSE) and Korean Modified Barthel Index (K-MBI) were performed on admission. CSP was performed for 30 minutes a day, 3 days per week for 4 weeks. We selected nine exercises available for stroke patients, and divided them as three steps according to the degree of difficulty. Because of the muscle weakness in stroke patients, a physical therapist often helped them during exercise. Outcome measurement included trunk control test (TCT), trunk impairment scale (TIS), and Berg balance scale (BBS) and we compared both groups before and after the period of training. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in baseline general characteristics and initial values between the two groups. After rehabilitation therapy, both groups showed significant improvements in BBS, TIS, and TCT (p<0.05). Following 4 weeks of therapy, changes of BBS, TIS score in the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p<0.05). However, the change of TCT score was not significantly different. CONCLUSION: Analysis of different clinical parameters showed that better outcomes in BBS, TIS scores were achieved from CSP. This study suggests that CSP conducted for 4 weeks may be beneficial as a therapeutic technique for use in improvement of trunk balance in patients with subacute hemiparetic stroke.