Abstract
Background
The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of two kinds of plantar short foot muscles exercise on foot posture and fundamental movement patterns in long-distance runners.
Design
A parallel group non-blinded trial with 6-week follow-up.
Methods
Twenty five long-distance runners aged 22–35 years. They were divided into two groups. In group 1 (n = 13) subjects performed the exercise “Vele’s Forward Lean” and “Reverse Tandem Gait” and in Group 2 (n = 12) the “Short Foot Exercise.” The runners performed the exercises daily for 6 weeks. The Foot Posture Index (FPI-6) and The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) tests were performed twice: at baseline and after 6 weeks of the exercise.
Results
A significant improvement was observed in FPI -6 (talar head palpation in Group 1, and inversion/eversion of the calcaneus in Group 2). Also in Group 1 a significant improvement was noted in FMS tests: deep squat, active straight leg raise and in total score.
Conclusions
Short foot muscles strengthening exercises have beneficial effect on functional movement patterns and on foot posture, therefore they should be included as a part of daily training program of runners.
Trial Registration
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12615001200572
Citation: Sulowska I, Oleksy Ł, Mika A, Bylina D, Sołtan J (2016) The Influence of Plantar Short Foot Muscle Exercises on Foot Posture and Fundamental Movement Patterns in Long-Distance Runners, a Non-Randomized, Non-Blinded Clinical Trial. PLoS ONE 11(6):
e0157917.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157917
Editor: Maciej Buchowski, Vanderbilt University, UNITED STATES
Received: November 4, 2015; Accepted: June 6, 2016; Published: June 23, 2016
Copyright: © 2016 Sulowska et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. Łukasz Oleksy is employed by Zen Machines Poland. Zen Machines Poland is his own company which provided support in the form of salary for him, but not for this study. Zen Machines Poland did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific role of this author is articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.
Competing interests: Łukasz Oleksy is employed by Zen Machines Poland which is his own company. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Description
Short foot muscle exercises improve foot posture and movement patterns in runners.