Postural Performance at Different Breathing Strategies in Patients with Limitation of Mobility

We investigated the effect of different breathing strategies on postural performance in the patients with joint mobility limitations. The amplitude and velocity of thecenter-of-pressure movements in the frontal.and sagittal planes were measured by the force platform in48 healthy volunteers. The stability of vertical posture was estimated during normal breathing, inspiratory and expiratory breath holding and hyperventilation with immobilization of the neck, trunk, hip and knee joints, and without immobilization. In general, the restriction of mobility caused a reduction in the postural stability in the sagittal plane, while the frontalbody swayamplitude decreased. These results suggest that body immobilization reduces the ability to compensate the effect of respiration on the stability of vertical posture in the sagittal plane and, on the contrary, facilitatesthe balance in the frontal plane.