Cardio vascular response to core stability exercises in healthy individuals

Background: Low back pain is the most common problem which is present among 60 to 80 percent of population in the world at least once in their life time. It is considered as the most influencing aspect of health of an individual as well as their daily living status. Objective: To examine the cardiovascular responses (Heart Rate, Systolic Blood pressure and Rate Pressure Product) in the abdominal techniques that are (bracing and hollowing) used in core stability exercises. Core stability exercises have been used in the management of low back pain. The cardiovascular effects of exercises that involve postural stabilization, arms and exercises in a lying position are well known. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the cardiovascular effects of 6 core stability exercises on cardiac patients which were used commonly for the treatment of low back ache. Materials and methods: This was a descriptive study which was conducted on a single group of 40 healthy males and females volunteers between age group of 18-25 years. With the mean age group of 21.12+1.042. Subjects were undergraduate students of MNR Sanjeevani College of physiotherapy, Sangareddy and were taken on the basis of convenient sampling. Prior to the participation all subjects were explained briefly about the aims and objectives of the study, health benefits of the core stability exercises and about the procedure of measuring Heart rate (HR), Systolic Blood pressure (SBP) and Rate Pressure product (RPP). All subjects were screened and a detail medical history was taken to exclude any serious illness. Health screening tool questionnaire (AACVPR) was used to identify the serious illness in the subject. One day before to the exercise session subjects were taken to the Gayathri Balakavi, Sreenivasu Kotagiri, Anup Kumar Songa, S. Purna Chandra Shekhar. Cardio vascular response to core stability exercises in healthy individuals. IAIM, 2019; 6(10): 35-42. Page 36 experimental room for familiarization of the procedure. The selected core stability exercises were demonstrated and subjects were instructed not to eat an hour before and not to wear tight clothes, Exercise protocol was designed properly and perfectly for the subjects so that they will be able to perform the exercises easily and effectively and the subjects were asked to participate in the exercise sessions after taking all the necessary measures. Pre and post exercise measurements of Systolic Blood pressure (SBP), Heart rate (HR) and Rate pressure product (RPP) values were measured. Before starting the exercise session subjects were made to relax for 15- 20 minutes, then the initial parameters of cardiovascular performance Systolic Blood pressure (SBP) were measured using automatic BP apparatus Omron M 10. BP cuff was tied to the left arm and patient was in high sitting position with arm supported at heart. Heart rate (HR) and Rate pressure product (RPP) were also measured at the same time along with (SBP). Subjects were asked to do 5 repetitions of all the exercises without any rest period. Post exercise Heart rate (HR), Systolic Blood pressure (SBP), and Rate Pressure Product (RPP) were recorded immediately after they finish the exercise. Now they were made to take rest till resting heart rate (RHR) was achieved. So for the given exercise sessions Systolic Blood pressure (SBP), Heart rate (HR) and, Rate Pressure Product (RPP) were measured for pre and post exercises. Results: There was marked increase in the cardiovascular parameters (heart rate, Systolic Blood pressure, and Rate Pressure Product). After exercise was performed, all the exercises were hemodynamically demanding. The study was done on single group of 40 healthy subjects with the mean age of 21.12 ± 1.04 in which 20 were males and 20 were female subjects. The baseline systolic blood pressure was 110.30 ±11.00 and baseline rate pressure product was 8797.15 ± 1419. The study was done with the aim to measure the acute cardiovascular responses to the core stability exercises. Repeated measures of ANOVA were used as the statistical tool. Conclusion: Core stability exercises can have cardiovascular effects in people with no cardiovascular or cardiopulmonary conditions. These cardiovascular effects may be important with respect to cardiac work, in Cardiac patients for whom these exercises are indicated. So, There was a significant increase in the cardiovascular parameters (Heart Rate, Systolic Blood Pressure, Rate Pressure Product) after the entire exercise session was performed by the subjects of the study.