Analyzing muscle thickness changes in lateral abdominal muscles while exercising using virtual reality

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Biomechanics
• Virtual Reality Technology

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) rehabilitation is increasingly utilized in medicine.
• VR-guided exercises (VR-ge) show promise for improving gait and trunk control.
• Trunk muscle activation, especially the transversus abdominis (TrA), is key to these improvements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in trunk muscle activation between VR and real-space exercises.
• To clarify the impact of VR-guided exercises on transversus abdominis (TrA) activation.

Main Methods:

• 22 healthy males participated, split into VR-guided exercise (VR-ge) and control exercise (C-e) groups.
• Ultrasound imaging measured trunk muscle (external oblique, internal oblique, TrA) thickness at rest and during reaching exercises.
• Exercises were performed in six directions in both VR and real-space conditions.

Main Results:

• No significant pre-intervention differences in TrA muscle thickness changes were found.
• Post-intervention, the VR-ge group exhibited significantly greater TrA muscle thickness changes during reaching tasks.
• This indicates enhanced TrA activation in the VR-ge group.

Conclusions:

• VR-guided exercises can lead to greater transversus abdominis (TrA) activation during reaching tasks compared to traditional real-space exercises.
• This suggests VR may offer a more effective approach for enhancing trunk muscle engagement in rehabilitation.