ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Exercise Physiology
This article is part of the Research TopicNeurophysiological Basis of the Relationship between Core Stability and Human Movement: Implications for Sport and RehabilitationView all 14 articles
Effect of suspension training on the balance ability of surfers without relying on vision
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Intelligent Sports Engineering, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan 430079, China, Wuhan, China
- 2Engineering Research Center of Sports Health Intelligent Equipment of Hubei Province, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, Hebei Province, China
- 3Key Laboratory of Sports Engineering of General Administration of Sport of China, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, Hebei Province, China
- 4Specialised Research Centre for High-Quality Development of Competitive Sports, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, China
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Abstract: Background: Surfing is an emerging Olympic sport that requires athletes to have excellent balance without relying on vision. This study introduces TRX (Total Resistance Exercise) suspension training into the balance training of surfing programs to investigate its effectiveness on the surfers' balance ability without relying on vision. Methods: Thirty-two surfers from the Chinese National Surfing Team were randomly divided into a TRX group and a traditional balance training (TB) group, and the two groups were given intervention training for about 30 minutes three times a week for eight weeks. Eye-closed one-leg stand and linear travel deviation tests were performed at different experiment stages to examine static and dynamic balance changes without visualization. Results: After intervention, both groups significantly improved left/right foot static balance (eyes-closed single-leg standing time) (F=21.26 and 25.22, p<0.001), with no significant inter-group or group × time interaction effects (all p>0.05). For dynamic balance (linear travel deviation), both groups improved significantly with intervention (F=23.41, p<0.001), and inter-group difference was significant (F=4.65, p=0.039); the TRX group had smaller deviation than the TB group at E2 (5 weeks post-intervention, p=0.021) and E3 (8 weeks post-intervention, p<0.001), with a significant group × time interaction (F=3.36, p<0.05), showing better improvement in the middle-late intervention stage. Conclusion: TRX and TB were effectively able to improve surfers' non-vision-dependent balance ability. However, TRX was more effective in improving dynamic balance in that situation. TB and TRX can be used to improve the static balance ability and dynamic balance ability for the first five weeks, and TRX can be applied to the balance training of surfers after five weeks.
Keywords: Intervention training, dynamic balance, static balance, linear travel deviation test, eye-closed one-leg stand test
Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhou, Ma, Guo, Ja and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yong Ma, mayong@whsu.edu.cn
Mengyao Ja, jmy15737132785@163.com
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