Comparison of the effect of six weeks of virtual reality rehabilitation training and reflexology massage on the performance of wheelchair basketball players

Spinal cord injuries are one of the most serious physical injuries that can cause disruption in various organs of the body and in some cases even threaten a person s life. One of the most common problems among these people is that at the level of the lesion or below it is felt that it has a negative effect on the activities of their daily lives and beyond that, it leads to functional disability due to loss of mobility. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of reflexology massage and virtual reality on improving the performance of wheelchair basketball athletes.This research is a quasi-experimental study and its statistical population consisted of wheelchair basketball athletes. Forty-five wheelchair basketball players with lumbar spinal cord injury were randomly divided into groups of ۱۵ in three groups: control, virtual reality rehabilitation, and reflexology massage. The two experimental groups performed three sessions of intervention per week for six weeks. Performance-related strength and range of motion variables were assessed by the MMT dynamometer and the Mobee electrogoniometer before and after exercise, respectively. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version ۲۱ with one-way analysis of variance and Tukey s post hoc test.The results showed that there was a significant increase between the pre-test and post-test scores in the performance variable that examined the strength and range of motion of the shoulder girdle in both groups (P≤۰.۰۵). The obtained means showed that the virtual reality group had better results than the massage group in terms of strength and range of motion.The results showed that reflexology massage as well as virtual reality system exercises were effective in improving the range of motion and isometric strength of the shoulder girdle of these people ; Therefore, it is suggested that paraplegics, coaches and sports professionals with disabilities benefit from these interventions to improve performance variables.

کلیدواژه ها:

Paraplegia ، Neuropathic pain ، virtual reality ، Massage ، Function