To improve the efficiency of physical education classes, unicycling should be considered a useful tool to increase trunk strength and stability among prepubertal children.

Trunk stability functions play an important role in sport and everyday movements. The aim of this study was to analyze trunk strength, trunk muscles onset of activity, and rate of electromyographic rise (RER) in the case of self-inflicted and unexpected trunk loading. Thirty-two healthy young adults (16 elite kayakers/canoeists and 16 non-athletes) were measured with a multi-purpose diagnostic machine. Trunk strength was assessed in standing position. Trunk muscles onset of activity and RER were assessed through unexpected loading over the hands and rapid shoulder flexion, respectively. In comparison with non-athletes, kayakers/canoeists did not significantly differ in trunk strength and showed lower trunk extension/flexion strength ratio (p = 0.008). In general, trunk muscles onset of activity did not significantly differ between the groups. On the contrary, kayakers/canoeists showed higher RER mean values in all the observed muscles (p < 0.041), except in multifidus muscle during self-inflicted movements. Similarly, higher RER variability was observed in the majority of the observed muscles among kayakers/canoeists. Higher RER among kayakers/canoeists could represent a protective mechanism that ensures spine stability and prevents low back pain.

Introduction: A trend of spending leisure time in front of various screens is widespread among children and adolescents. Prolonged sitting, low level of local muscular endurance, and playing video games are some of the risk factors for low back pain among children and adolescents. In order to motivate children to be regularly active, exercise video games (exergames) have appeared on the market. The aim of this paper is to review the literature on movement content to increase spine stability and hardware options for effective motion tracking. In order to determine the game content more accurately, the second aim was to evaluate the correlation between maximum trunk strength (in the lateral and frontal planes) and the performance of the lumbar stability test. Methods: We focused on Pubmed database, where we searched for articles published since 2010. The correlation study included 9 subjects (age 20,4 ± 6,1, height 178,8 ± 6,1 cm, weight 70,8 ± 13,5 kg) who were physically active 3 times per week. We used Spearman coefficient for correlation analysis. Results: 40 articles were included in the analysis. Maximal trunk strength in sagittal and frontal planes did not significantly correlate with total CoP area (r < 0,10), p > 0,79). In general, researchers agreed that a successful preventive-curative approach to manage low back pain consists of several phases. In reviewing the hardware, the researchers stressed the importance of motion tracking with marker-less sensors, as their validity in performing simple movements is comparable to the gold standard.