Postural profile of rhythmic gymnastics athletes aged 10 to 19 years in the State of São Paulo

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate postural changes in young rhythmic gymnastics athletes of high performance in the state of São Paulo. The research sample consisted of 75 young athletes (10-19 years) that trained five times a week and disputed international, national and regional competitions. The postural assessment used was the protocol of Portland State University (PSU), whose postural correction index (PCI) for adolescents is ≥ 75% and image analysis procedures of biophotogrammetry. As statistical analysis, was used the Friedman test, comparing the mean values of the indices by region, post hoc test to compare pair to pair using Wilcoxon test and Spearman correlation to evaluate the mean values of the indices by region and years of sport practice. For all statistical tests was considered a significance level of p-values ≤ 0.05. The results showed that young athletes are with normal ICP 79.5% (SD = 4.2), noting a greater emphasis on the spine 86.0% (SD = 6.5), a significant clinical observation in the lower limbs 72.9% (SD = 8.0), as 22.7% are below normal and it was identified that there was no correlation between the indices by region and years of sport practice. Regarding postural changes: 100% had thoracic scoliosis, 98.7% had hyperextension, 90.7% had hip tilt, 76.0% had forward head and 64.0% had hiperkyphosis, hiperlordosis and eversion.The research concludes that is necessary to create monitoring strategies, prevention and muscular rebalancing to the lower limbs and pelvic stabilization, aiming to correct and minimize musculoskeletal problems.