Background: Roller skating is one of the famous skating category pursued as both, a recreational activity as well as a full time profession all over the world. The sport specific posture that the roller-skaters assume throughout the training and practice time is known to be the predisposing factor for muscle imbalance in them.

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to find out whether there were any muscular imbalances prevailing in the roller skating population due to the specific posture they attain while engaged in their respective sport activity. The secondary objective was to check the co-relation between the muscle strengths of the dominant side vs the non-dominant side.

Methodology: 100 roller skaters (n=100) were taken for the study.  The muscle strengths of the lower limb and the trunk muscles were measured. The muscle strengths on the dominant side were compared with the non-dominant side to find out correlation between the two.

Result: No muscle imbalance was seen between the dominant side vs the non-dominant side(p>0.05). But a statistically significant correlation(r=0.7-0.8) was seen in muscle strengths between the left and right side of the body for all muscles except the Ankle plantar flexors which showed poor correlation (r=0.36)

Conclusion: No sport specific muscle imbalance is seen in roller skaters. There is a correlation between the muscle strength of dominant side and the non dominant side of the body in roller skaters.

Keywords: Skating,Roller skaters, Muscle imbalance.

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Prasannajeet P Nikam

Post Graduate Student, Sports Physiotherapy,

KLE University’s Institute of Physiotherapy, Belgaum, Karnataka, India