The Effect of 8 Weeks Step Aerobic Exercises on Knee Joint, Isokinetic Strength, Balance and Quality Of Life

The Effect of 8 Weeks Step Aerobic Exercises on Knee Joint, Isokinetic Strength, Balance and Quality Of Life The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of 8 weeks step aerobic exercises on lower leg isometric strength, balance parameter and the quality of life of sedentary women. 26 volunteer sedentary women students (age:20,35 ±1,35 year, height: 162,92±5,35 cm, weight: 61,95±9,79 kg) selected randomly from other faculties except School of Physical Education and Sports in Afyon Kocatepe University to participate in this study. These participants had neither any disability nor sports history. In this study, all participants' 600, 1800, 3000/sec isometric knee extension and flexion strength value, static- dynamic balance value was evaluated as pretest and posttest. Besides, all participants were applied to the SF-36 Quality of Life Scale. After pretest, participants took part in an 8-week step aerobic exercises, three times a week and 1 hour in a day. After 8-week step aerobic exercises, pretests were applied as posttest with the same protocol, then pretests' and posttests' values were compared. SPSS (20.0) statistics packaged software was used for data analysis. After the Kolmogorov- Smirnov test was used for determining if the data showed normal distribution or not, and the Levene test was used for determining the homogeneity of data, it was decided to perform parametric tests. Paired t-test was performed to determine the difference between the pretest and posttest's values of the participants. The intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated to determine data reliability between pre and post tests. p< 0,05 value was taken as significant value and Cohen-d value was calculated to determine effect size. Interclass correlation coefficient and Cohen-d value reference ranges were classified as low (0.00 - 0.49), medium (0.50 -0.79), and large (d- 0.8). The isokinetic quadriceps peak torque and hamstring peak torque values analyze results showed that there was a statistical significant development between the pre and posttest in favor of the posttest for both legs at angular speeds of 60, 180, 3000/sec. Moreover, the analyzes of hamstring/quadriceps rate values results showed that there was a statistically significant improvement between the pre and post test in favor of posttest for both legs at angular speeds of 60, 180, 3000/sec (p<05). Moreover, double foot static balance (1489,0-+642,63 bi vs. 1218,46-+430,96 bi p<0,01), back double foot static balance (836,65-+496,59 bi vs. 557,85-+302,76 bi p<0,01) values showed that there was a statistical significant improvement in favor of the posttest. However, left foot dynamic balance (970,27±297,39 bi vs. 1300,31-+434,98 bi p<0,01) and front double foot dynamic balance (964,24-+307,52 bi vs. 1235,50-+407,22 bi p<0,02) was found to be negatively affected after intervention. Additionally, there was no statistical difference in the other balance measurements. According to results of pre and post test of the quality of living analyzes there was a statistical significant development in favor of the post test in the matters of liveliness (72,69-+12,02 vs. 74,42-+11,60 p<0,01), emotional health (69,92-+12,90 vs. 74,97-+14,18 p<0,03), physical function (83,07-+13,27 vs. 89,42-+10,42 p<0,02), physical role difficulty (90,38-+22,44 vs. 95,99-+13,87 p<0,02), general health (67,76-+12,14 vs. 73,34-+10,37 p<0,02). Nevertheless, there was no statistical difference in the pain, social functioning, emotional role difficulty values. As a conclusion, step aerobic exercises which are practiced for 8 weeks, cause increase in lower leg isokinetic power value and partially increase in static balance value in sedentary women. Nonetheless, step aerobic exercises also present us partial improvement of quality of living. Accordingly, even if step aerobic exercise is a aerobic exercise we can see that it contribute development of several motoric skills such as because of the stepping board gives extra weight to the body it cause improvement in power, ability of balance and quality of living. Instead of exercising of motoric features partially, step aerobics which improve several motoric features with music and rhythm are recommended for efficiently usage of time, motivation of participants and removal of vapidity of exercises. Keywords: Step-Aerobic, Isokinetic, Balance, Strength, Quality of Life.