Background: Controversial findings exist in the literature with respect to the efficacy of visually guided weight-shifting (WS) training as a means of improving balance in healthy older adults. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of two direction-specific, visually guided WS training protocols on standing balance of healthy elderly women. Methods: Forty-eight community-dwelling elderly women, all free of any neurological or musculoskeletal impairment, were randomly assigned into: a group that practiced WS in the anterior/posterior direction (A/P group, n = 19), a group that practiced WS in the medio/lateral direction (M/L group, n = 15) and a control group (n = 14). Participants performed 12 training sessions of visually guided WS (3 sessions a week for 25 minutes per session). Static balance was measured before and after training in normal (bipedal) quiet stance (NQS) and sharpened-Romberg stance (SRS) by recording center of pressure (CoP) variations and angular segment kinematics. Results: In NQS, neither of the two training protocols had a significant impact on postural sway measures, although a significant decrease in interlimb asymmetry of CoP displacement was noted for the A/P group. In SRS, A/P training induced a significant reduction of CoP displacement, lower limb pitch and upper trunk roll rotation. Conclusion: The results of the study stress the importance of using direction-specific WS tasks in balance training, particularly in the A/P direction, in order to improve control of static balance in elderly women.

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of level of skill and swimming speed on inter-limb coordination of freestyle swimming movements. Five elite (2 males, 3 females; age 18.9+/-1.0 years, height 1.71+/-0.04 m, body mass 62.1+/-7.0 kg) and seven novice (age 22.0+/-2.0 years, height 1.77+/-0.04 m, body mass 74.8+/-9.0 kg) swimmers swam a sprint and a self-paced 25 m freestyle trial. The swimming trials were recorded by four digital cameras operating at 50 Hz. The digitized frames underwent a three-dimensional direct linear transformation to yield the three-dimensional endpoint kinematic trajectories. The spatio-temporal relationship between the upper limbs was quantified by means of the peak amplitude and time lag of the cross-correlation function between the right and left arm's endpoint trajectories. A strong anti-phase coupling between the two arms, as confirmed by peak amplitudes greater than 0.8, was noted for both groups and swimming speeds. Significantly higher (P<0.05) peak amplitudes were observed for the sprint compared with self-paced swimming. No significant differences in the strength of inter-limb coupling were noted between the elite and novice swimmers (P>0.05). Time lags were very close to 0 ms and did not differ between groups or swimming speeds. We conclude that in freestyle swimming, the intrinsic anti-phase (180 degrees phase difference) inter-limb relationship is strongly preserved despite the physically powerful environmental influence of the water and this "preferred" pattern is not affected by level of skill. In contrast, increasing movement speed results in stronger inter-limb coupling that is closer to the anti-phase inter-limb relationship.

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This study examined the impact of visually guided weight-shifting training on elderly women's limits of stability during static leaning and dynamic swaying in different directions. Sixty-three elderly women were assigned into a group that practiced weight shifting (30-min sessions, 3 sessions/week, 4 weeks) either in the anterior/posterior or medio/lateral direction and a control group. Training resulted in a reduction of upper body rotation and an increase of shank rotation and center of pressure displacement. It is concluded that weight-shifting practice increases the limits of stability and enhances the inverted pendulum pivoting of the human body during leaning and dynamic swaying balance tasks.

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