Abstract

The purposes of this study were to investigate biomechanical variables of the lumbar spine for women who enjoy recreational exercises regularly, and to determine the factors that influence these variables. These variables were determined by the X-ray pictures of the lumbar area of 80 housewives who visited the department of rehabilitation at the Y Hospital from October 1997 to March 1998. The sacral inclination angle, the sacrohorizontal angle, the lumbosacral joint angle, and the lumbar lordotic angle were analysed. The t-test, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the significant differences and relationships among variables. The result were as follows: 1) There was a significant difference in the sacral inclination angle (p<0.01), the sacrohorizontal angle (p<0.05) and the lumbar lordotic angle (p<0.05) between the bilateral and the unilateral exercise group. 2) With the sacral inclination angle, the sacrohorizontal angle, the lumbosacral joint angle and the lumbar lordotic angle, correlation was found between the sacral inclination angle and the sacrohorizontal angle (p<0.01), the sacral inclination angle and the lumbosacral joint angle (p<0.05), the sacral inclination angle and the lumbar lordotic angle (p<0.05), and the sacrohorizontal angle and the lumbosacral joint angle (p<0.01). 3) In the bilateral exercise group, the sacral inclination angle correlated with age (p<0.01). The sacrohorizontal angle correlated with age (p<0.01) and exercise time (p<0.01). The lumbar lordotic angle correlated with age (p<0.05) and exercise duration (p<0.05). In the unilateral exercise group, the sacral inclination angle correlated with age (p<0.01), while the sacrohorizontal angle correlated with age (p<0.01) and exercise duration (p<0.05). The lumbar lordotic angle correlated with age (p<0.05).

Keywords

• Recreational exercise;
• Lumbar spine;
• Biomechanics;
• X-ray