The purpose of this study was to test the effect of adding diaphragmatic breathing exercises (DBEs) to core stabilization exercises (CSEs) for patients with chronic low back pain (CLPB). Twenty-two patients with CLPB were randomly allocated to the experimental (DBE + CSE) or control group (CSE only). They were given 12 treatment sessions 3 times a week for 4 weeks. Patients were evaluated before and after the 12 sessions. Surface electromyography of transverse abdominis, Oswestry Disability Index, Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Numeric Pain Rating Scale, and chest expansion were used as outcome measures for pain, muscle activity, disability, and sleep quality. The outcome measure scores showed statistical significance of (P = .01) in time effect on muscle activity, sleep quality, disability score, pain score, fear-avoidance belief of patients and chest expansion; and group effect on Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaire and physical activity parameter (P = .05). An interaction effect (time x group) on muscle activity for right transverse abdominus during tuck in (P = .01) and chest expansion (P = .01) was also found; however, no significant difference was found related to other parameters. The combination of DBE and CSE interventions compared to CSE alone showed improvement in the measured parameters for patients with CLBP. Incorporating DBE with CSE also improved muscle activation and chest expansion.

Background: Conditioning activities such as resistance training can cause excitation of central nervous system resulting in Post-activation Potentiation phenomenon. Plyometric exercise also has an important role to develop Post-activation Potentiation following a resistance stimulus. So the purpose the study was to investigate the immediate effects of weighted plyometric exercise on sprint, agility and jump performance. Materials and methods: Twenty male university football players (age=21.3±1.5 years, body mass=63.3±9.5 kg, height=169.8±6.4 m) participated in this Single group pre-test post-test study. Agility Time (AT), Sprint Time (ST) and Counter-Movement Jump (CMJ) height were measured prior to and 1st and 5th minutes following plyometric exercise. Results: A repeated measures ANOVA employed at baseline (T0), 1 minute (T1), and 5 minutes (T5) post intervention showed significant effect for all the three outcome measures (p<0.001). Post-hoc Bonferroni pairwise comparison showed a significant decrease in both AT and ST from baseline to assessments at both T1 (p<0.001) and T5 (p<0.001), whereas there was a significant increase in the CMJ height. However, no statistical difference was found between T1 and T5 (p=0.058) in ST, but AT was significantly lower at T5 than at T1 (p=0.008), and CMJ height showed significant increase from T1 to T5 (p=0.001). Conclusion: Our results suggest that weighted plyometric exercises have an acute response on sprint, agility and counter movement jump (CMJ Height) following Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) effect developed after plyometric exercises.