The Effect of Mechanical Horseback-Riding Training according to Velocity on Trunk Muscles Thickness in Healthy Adult

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Purpose: The study was to determine whether mechanical horseback-riding training according to velocity may improve trunk muscles thickness in healthy adults. Methods: Twenty healthy adults participated in this study. The subjects were divided into 2 groups as follows: 10 subjects in high velocity mechanical horseback-riding training (MHRT) and 10 subjects in low velocity MHRT. Subjects in all groups performed a total of 18 sessions 3 times a day for 20 minutes and this experiment lasted for 6 weeks. Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon Signed Rank test were used in analysis the results of trunk muscle thickness. Ultrasonography was performed to evaluate for thickness of rectus abdominis (RA), external oblique (EO), internal oblique (IO), transverse abdominis (TrA), erector spine (ES), and multifidus (MF) in trunk muscles. Results: Results on the changes of EO, IO, and ES of high velocity MHRT showed a significant increase after 6 weeks (p<0.05). Regarding the changes of EO, IO, ES, TrA, and MF of low velocity MHRT, a significant increase was observed after 6 weeks (p<0.05). The differences in change of trunk muscle thickness before training, after 6-week training between groups, TrA and MF of low velocity MHRT were significantly higher (p<0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results of the current study, the velocity of MHRT was shown to affect change of trunk muscle thickness in healthy adults. In particular, low velocity MHRT may serve as a useful method to provide for TrA, MF thickness improvement related to trunk stabilizers.