Impact of an aquatic exercising program on the balance of elderly males

Abstract:The purpose of this research is to study the impact of an aquatic exercising program on the balance of elderly males in Ahwaz. Elderly males living in Ahwaz formed the statistical population of the study. Criterion for the selection of subjects of this investigation was to be male and aged between 60 to70 years among which 30 persons were selected by purposive sampling and were placed in two control and experimental groups. Romberg test was used to measure the static balance variable and T.G.U.G test was used to measure dynamic the balance variable. Smirnov - Kolmogorov test was used to examine the research hypotheses and to analyze the collected data at a significant level of ?=05/0 and also for the normal distribution of such data. To distinguish differences between these two groups, a 2×2 factorial design test was used before and after 24 exercising sessions. Data analysis results shows that designing a water-based exercising program can be positively effective on improving the balance in elderly persons and additionally, it may prevent possible injuries and damages in balance exercises due to the safety of environment. Therefore, in order to raise the balance and also reduce the risks of balance exercises in elderly, it is suggested to design aquatic exercising programs in order to improve the balance and to reduce the damages resulting from balance exercises in elderly persons.