Does Shoulder Girdle Strengthening Exercises have an Effect on Grip Strength in Adolescent Recreational Tennis Players? A Randomised Controlled Trial

Abstract

Introduction: There is a correlation of shoulder girdle strength on grip strength but its effect remains unobserved in adolescent recreational tennis players due to insufficient training time received by recreational players. Aim: To evaluate the effect of shoulder girdle strengthening exercises on grip strength and to find correlation between shoulder strength and grip strength in recreational adolescent tennis players. Materials and Methods: The present study was randomised controlled trial, in which 50 adolescent lawn tennis players meeting the inclusion criteria of age range between 9-19 years were selected and randomised into two groups. Group A received shoulder girdle strengthening exercises for three alternate days per week for four weeks whereas no exercises were performed by group B participants. The assessment was done for grip strength and shoulder strength at the baseline, by the end of the 2nd week and by the end of the 4th week for both the groups using hand-held dynamometer and seated medicine ball throw test to see the effect of shoulder girdle strengthening exercises on grip strength. The data was analysed in software MedCalc using repeated measure Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results: The analysis showed statistical significance of p-value <0.001 for both shoulder strength and grip strength in group A in comparison to group B. The correlation between shoulder girdle strengthening on grip strength was found to be r=0.4090, thus revealing a moderate positive correlation between shoulder strength and grip strength after four weeks. Conclusion: The shoulder girdle strengthening exercises can be incorporated in the training program to improve grip strength as they have a positive moderate correlation.

Keywords

• adolescent recreational tennis player
• hand-held dynamometer
• seated medicine ball throw test