Investigation of the effect of strength exercise program applied on unstable surfaces on limb symmetry index of female athletes

Women aged between 18-32 years (n: 50) undergoing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using a hamstring autograft of 121.74 ± 3.15 days ago participated in the study. Participants were divided into two groups as the study group (SG; n = 25) who applied strength training program on unstable grounds and the control group (CG) that applied different return to sports programs. Individualized progressive exercises performed on unstable grounds during 12 weeks were applied to the athletes in the study group for a period of 90 days with 48 training sessions while the athletes in the control group will continue their classical rehabilitation programs. Single leg hop (SLH), Triple hop (STH), cross-over hop (SCH) and 6 m Timed hop (6MT) tests were performed before and after the training program to determine the limb symmetry index (LSI) between the injured (I) and the noninjured (NI) legs of the athletes. When the pre-test and post-test scores of the athletes were compared, a statistically significant improvement was observed in all parameters for both groups (p <0.05). When the improvemental differences of both groups were evaluated; LEFS, TB-A, TB-S, TBU-A, TBU-S, TBC-A and TOTAL hop scores showed a statistically significant difference in favour of SG (p <0.05). As a conclusion, it is seen that the strength exercise program, which was applied on unstable ground, has positive effects on both functional field tests and LSI asymmetry in the return to sport phase of athletes who underwent ACL surgery. It is thought that it will be more effective to use the advantages of single leg hop tests with minimal equipment and time and the use of uninjured leg as a reference for control purposes in clinical evaluation with isokinetic tests. Key Words: Anterior Cruciate Ligament, Strenght, Unstable, LSI, Balance