Athletes across all sports face sporting injuries stemming from overuse of specific muscle groups for that particular sport. Overuse of specific muscle groups causes functional muscle imbalance leading to postural changes. It was hypothesized that athletes from each sport would show similar muscular-skeletal changes allowing the formation of a postural stereotype for each sport. The aim of this study was to determine the postural changes of 92 athletes aged 14 to 17 years old in Latvia; 20 Swimmers, 20 ice-hockey players, 19 basketball players, 17 handball players, and 16 cyclists. The previously tested express diagnostic program (Solovjova & Upitis, 2008), was employed to evaluate muscular-skeletal changes. Results indicate specific sporting stereotypes exist. The presence of a postural stereotype indicates these muscular-skeletal changes are of benefit to the athlete. How much benefit athletes gain from these postural changes before injury occurs is open to debate among coaches, athletes, support staff and sporting officials.
© Copyright 2013 LASE Journal of Sport Science. Latvian Academy of Sport Education. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.