Postural status of the spinal column in young rhythmic gymnasts

Abstract

Numerous studies highlight the beneficial effects of physical activity on children's and adolescents' health in all areas, and it is commonly known that regular sports participation enhances motor skills and has a major impact on physical development and posture. However, asymmetric physical exercises, unique to a certain sport, such as rhythmic gymnastics (RG), can cause aberrant curvatures of the spine, particularly during times of rapid growth and development. The main research objective is to determine the type and prevalence of postural disorders of the spine in sagittal and frontal plane in 48 young female rhythmic gymnasts (RGs), aged 6 to 18, as well as to examine the differences between 25 juvenile and 23 adolescent RGs. Their baseline characteristics (age, body height and mass, and body mass index) were established, as well as their spine curvature status (kyphosis, lordosis, and thoracic and lumbar scoliosis, in °) by means of the SpinalMouse® device. The data were analyzed (descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, ANOVA, Chi-square test) using SPSS 21.0. Research results showed that large percentage of RGs had postural disorders in the sagittal (64.6%), and also in the frontal plane (77.1%), noting that postural disorders are more prevalent in juvenile RGs (72% and 76% in the sagittal and the frontal plane, respectively), and flat back is a common spinal posture disorder in RGs. When comparing the sizes of the spinal column curvatures of juvenile and adolescent RGs, statistically significant differences exist only when it comes to kyphosis (p=0.037), and that "in favor" of the older subsample. Such results (presence of lordotic, scoliotic and minor presence of kyphotic posture) are not surprising if we take into account the technical and tactical requirements of RG which belongs to a group of asymmetric sports-RGs have stronger extensors than trunk flexors which leads to absence of kyphotic and an increase of lordotic posture; also, RG is a sport of asymmetric spine loading because of unilateral hip flexibility in various conditions, which explains the large prevalence of scoliotic posture among RGs.