Investigation of the effects of lower extremity unilateral exercises on core parameters and balance

The main objective of this work is to investigate the effects and responses of the lower extremity based unilateral exercises on the core stability and durability, core lateral flextion and core strength, and the static balance, which, incidentially, are the three main building blocks of the biomechanical properties related to the core area. The research group used for this manuscript consists of 20 male participants living in Istanbul, of ages between 25 and 30. Participants are divided into two groups, namely the research and the control group, of size 10, based on their ages, weights, heights and body mass indices. The data pertaining to their ages, exercise and injury histories are collected during the initial phase and they are subjected to various measurements, including height and weight measurement, core stabilization and strength tests, core lateral flexion and static balance assessments and one-repeat maximum squat exercise tests. These parameters are obtained twice, once at the begining and once at the end of this research. The experimental group is subjected lower extremity based unilateral exercises with a frequency of 3 days per weeks over the period of 8 weeks. Meanwhile, the control group did not participate at any regular exercise programs over the course of 8 weeks. The data collected during this research are analysed with the software SPSS 25.0. The main parameters of interest are the parametric and non-parametric distributions of the participants' initial and final measurement scores, their distribution curves and the Skewness-Kurtosis values of the parameters of interest. The main analysis method utilized so as to detect the effects of the training on the groups over the time is the Two-way Repeated Anova analysis. Based on the analysis we made, within the research group, no significant change (with p>0,05) is observed in the aforementioned objective parameters, namely the body weight, body mass index, core stability and strength, and stability parameters, except on the 1-repeat maximal measurements which yielded a significance parameter (p<0,05). When the results are analyzed between the groups, while we observed no significant difference with respect to the parameters body weight, body mass index and balance parameters (with p>0,05), there is a significant difference with respect to the parameters pertaining to the core stability and strength (with parameter p<0,05). Moreover, there is a significant difference in the core strength and 1-repeat maximal parameters among the groups (with p<0,05), as well. The conclusion reached based on this research is that the lower extremity based unilateral exercises have positive effects on the core parameters and stability. Keywords: Unilateral, core, balance, abdominal crunch, 1-repeat maximal, stabilization