Rehabilitative exercise scheduling: effects on balance, functional movement performance and pain perception in middle-aged women with knee pain: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The scheduling of clinical rehabilitative exercise should combine best possible delivery of exercise with the most efficient use of time, facilities, equipment, and personnel. However, it is not clear whether distribution of a fixed amount of exercise volume is more efficient over a longer time period in a week (distributed manner) than over a shorter time period in a week (massed manner).

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of distributed vs. massed within- and between- sessions exercise scheduling on balance, exercise performance and pain perception in middle-aged women with knee pain.

PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-four middle-aged female volunteers (56.05±5.21 years old; 66.88±7.62 kg; 27.70±2.77 kg/m2) who were randomly assigned into one of the three groups consisting of Rehabilitative Massed Scheduling (RMS); Rehabilitative Distributed Scheduling (RDS); or Control group (CG).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Isometric strength, balance, functional movement performance and pain perception were assessed at baseline (pre), at week eight (mid), and one week after the full 12-weeks (post) of exercise training or no-intervention (CG).

RESULTS: Significant improvements in balance, functional movement performance and pain perception were found after both rehabilitative distributed and massed scheduling after eight and 12 weeks compared to the control group (p˂0.05). When examining the net changes (% ∆) between RDS and RMS there was only a significant difference in the right 30s arm curl records of individuals in the RDS group which were significantly higher than the RMS group at the post-test (p˂0.05).

CONCLUSION: Rehabilitative training providers are advised to distribute the drills of rehabilitative exercise training within and between the sessions of exercise per week only when a positive BURST effect of exercise training is needed. Otherwise, as long as the whole amount of rehabilitative exercise work is identical the benefit of going five vs three times per week to the rehabilitation centers would be similar. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.