Relationship Between Upper Body Strength and Core Muscle Endurance in Two Wheelers- A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Two wheelers has been the vital mode of transport among most of the people in India. As major areas are crowded in India, two wheeled vehicles are the most easiest one to avoid traffic and also easy to park. Two wheeled vehicles are almost used by every individual for both occupational and non occupational purposes. As the individual has to maintain static posture, he/she undergoes many musculoskeletal problems and discomforts. The two wheelers most commonly have neck pain, shoulder complaints, upper back pain and knee discomforts, lower back, wrist and foot problems. To follow the rules and regulation and also for safety purposes, he/she is mandatorily asked to wear helmet which causes cervical neck discomforts. It is shown there is correlation of neck and shoulder pain to scapular endurance and back pain to core strength. Hence there is a need to check for the scapular and core muscle endurance in two wheelers and also the relationship between them. Objective: To check therelationship between upper body strength and core muscle endurance in two wheelers. Methods: 62 participants are included in this cross-sectional method of study with Push up test and trunk flexor endurance test as the outcome measure. Result: Overall study shows that in females when compared to males, push up test is highly significant to trunk flexor test. In scooter when compared to bike, push up test is highly significant to trunk flexor test and both two wheelers push up test is significant to trunk flexor endurance test. When riding experience is compared, in 2–5 years, 5–8 years and >8 years push up test is significant to trunk flexor endurance test. In the age group <20 years push up test is significant to trunk flexor endurance test, 20–25 years it is very highly significant and >25 years is highly significant. In riding hours per day, 1–2 hours push up test is very highly significant to trunk flexor endurance test and <1 hour push up test is very highly significant to trunk flexor endurance test. Conclusion: This study concludes that upper body strength may affect core endurance through the kinetic chain. Thus in order to increase the performance and reduce the risk of injury, it’s important to include exercise programs that improves the strength and core muscle endurance.