Introduction: With the prevalence of modern lifestyles and the expansion of healthcare, life expectancy is increasing, leading to a growing elderly population. This sensitive period in life results in a gradual deterioration and acceleration of physical decline, leading to diminished bodily function. This making the elderly vulnerable to injury and a decrease in quality of life. Engaging in physical exercises to increase muscle strength and improve quality of life is beneficial. Therefore, the ability to perform essential movements is evaluated through functional performance tests before activity. Neuromuscular exercises aimed at screening individuals for movement skills, mobility, balance, lower body motor control, and core stability exercises with retraining and increasing the endurance of these muscles help maintain proper body condition and stability, playing a role in performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks of central stability, neuromuscular, combined exercises on the screening test scores of the elderly.
Methodology: A sample of 48 elderly women and men aged 65 to 75 from Mashhad were selected; they were randomly assigned to four equal experimental groups (central stability exercises, neuromuscular exercises, combined exercises) and a control group. Central stability, neuromuscular exercises were performed three times a week for eight weeks, while combined exercises were performed twice a week in the first, third, fifth, and seventh weeks, including two sessions of central stability exercises and one session of neuromuscular exercises, while in the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth weeks, two sessions of neuromuscular exercises and one session of central stability exercises were performed. Functional movement screening was evaluated using the FMS test. Data analysis was performed using covariance analysis for intergroup changes after examining the homogeneity of group variances and the normal distribution of the data. A significance level of 0.05 was considered.
Findings: The results indicated a significant difference in the scores of the functional movement screening tests among the groups of interest (P=0.001). The test results for the mean differences between different groups in the scores of the elderly's functional movement screening tests showed significant differences in the scores of the functional movement screening tests among the different exercise groups. The control group showed no significant changes, while the combined exercises group had the greatest increase in the scores of the functional movement screening tests.
Conclusion: The central stability, neuromuscular, combined exercises had a significant effect on the elderly's movement performance. This may be due to the combined effects of exercises in increasing muscle strength, movement diversity. The lack of significant changes in the control group indicates the importance of the direct effects of exercises on the outcomes. This confirms the positive impact of exercises on the movement scores of the elderly.