The effect of lower limb muscle fatigue on balance in elite young athletes.

Background and Aim: With regard to importance of the role of balance in performance of daily activity especially in exercise activity and necessary to identify the factors that influence the balance, the purpose of this study was to survey the effect of lower limb muscle fatigue on balance in elite young athletes. Materials and Methods: For this purpose, 15 young elite swimmers with a mean age and body mass index 17±0.7 and 21.62±0.5 during the two test phase, were studied. All participants performed the postural Stability and limit of stability tests in six for each test (three repetitions before and three repetitions after fatigue protocol by Wingate test)on the balance Biodex system. Values obtained by the system of the total, anterior - posterior, medial - lateral, anterior, anterior - right, anterior- left, posterior, posterior - right and posterior left index, were analyzed using paired sample t-test(P≤0.05). Results: Results showed that fatigue caused a significantly influence the anterior - posterior, medial - lateral, posterior, left and posterior -- left index. Conclusion: With considering the specificity of training principle, the results can be helpful in the design of exercises involving the lower limb muscles in the specific direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]