Effects of Ai Chi on Scapular Muscle Activation in Overhead Athletes With Scapular Dyskinesis

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT05714163

Enrollment

Registered

2023-02-06

Start date

2022-10-16

Completion date

2023-02-23

Last updated

2026-01-15

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Athletic Injuries, Muscle Weakness, Overuse Injury, Scapular Dyskinesis

Keywords

Ai Chi, Hydrotherapy, Scapular dyskinesis, Overhead athletes, muscle balance, kinetic chain

Brief summary

Scapular dyskinesis (SD) is common in overhead athletes and negatively influence the athletes' performance, increasing the risk of shoulder injury. The kinetic chain (KC) exercises for SD rehabilitation that emphasize importance of core strength and scapula stability during skillful performance. Ai Chi, the aquatic exercises performed in functional positions, which are adequate for power transfer of KC. This study will investigate the effect of KC-based water exercises, Ai Chi, on scapular muscles in overhead athletes with SD.

Detailed description

The purpose of this study is to investigate muscle activations of the upper trapezius (UT), lower trapezius (LT), serratus anterior (SA), latissimus dorsi (LD), and muscle balance ratios of UT/LT, UT/SA I in overhead athletes with SD via KC-based exercise in water and on land. KC-based exercises including the movement patterns of Ai Chi which consist of shoulder flexion/ extension, horizontal abduction/ adduction, internal and external rotation, scapular protraction/retraction combined with spinal rotation.

Interventions

None listed

Study design

Observational model

OTHER

Time perspective

CROSS_SECTIONAL

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

20 Years to 99 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* The participants are overhead athletes with scapular dyskinesis (SD) who played overhead sports activities at least 3 hours/week.

Exclusion criteria

* the individuals who have shoulder/neck pain in recent 3 months (VAS \>7/10) * severe shoulder trauma (the collision shoulder, shoulder sprains or strains) * severe scoliosis (Cobb angle \> 25 degrees) * surgery of upper extremity (the shoulder, cervical spine and elbow) or cervical spine * peripheral nerve injury or neurological disease (impaired sensation or motor function: numbness, tingle, muscle weakness) * body mass index (BMI) \>25 * infectious disease (upper respiratory tract infection, skin infection, etc.)

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Percentage of maximal voluntary isometric contraction of upper trapezius (UT), lower trapezius (LT), serratus anterior (SA), latissimus dorsi (LD)	Through study completion, an average of 10 months	The muscle activity of UT, LT, SA and LD of the dominant hand will be recorded for 3 trials of each exercises with 3-seconds concentric phase and 3-seconds eccentric phase. There is a 3-second rest between trails and one-minute rest between exercises.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Muscle balance ratio of UT/SA	Through study completion, an average of 10 months	The muscle balance ratio will be calculated to represent the conditions of these force couples in scapular region.
Muscle balance ratio of UT/LT	Through study completion, an average of 10 months	The muscle balance ratio will be calculated to represent the conditions of these force couples in scapular region.

Countries

Taiwan

Outcome results