The physiological effects of slacklining on balance and core strength

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the affect of slacklining on core strength and balance in college age students. Subjects consisted of students enrolled in two activity classes at a Midwest Division III university campus. Students enrolled in the circus arts class formed the experimental group, which consisted of a four-week slacklining treatment; and students in the indoor rock climbing class acted as the control group and did no slacklining during the training period. The researchers administered core strength and balance tests on both groups before and after the four-week training protocol using the Biering-Sorenson (BST), right and left lateral bridge (RLB and LLB), trunk flexor (TF) test and the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT). Upon examining the results of a MANOVA and a repeated measures ANOVA test, there are no significant differences between the experimental and control groups with regard to mean core strength at a 5% level of significance (p=0.140). However repeated measures ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference in the normalized mean balance scores between the experimental and control group at a 5% level of significance (p=0.004). With this information further research into the relationship between slacklining and balance should be investigated.