Abstract
BACKGROUND: Instability core training (ICT) has been the focus of extensive research because of its proven benefits to athletes' core muscle strength and sprint performance. However, there is a lack of systematic reviews explicitly evaluating the impact of instability core training (ICT) vs traditional core training (TCT) on athletes' trunk strength and sprint performance. This study aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of ICT vs TCT on trunk strength and sprint performance among athletes. METHOD: This study used guidelines for the systematic review and meta-analysis of PRISMA, Web of Science, EBSCOhost (SPORTDiscus), PubMed, Scopus, CNKI, and Google Scholar to collect original references in electronic databases. The Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Study Design (PICOS) method was selected for the inclusion criteria. The physiotherapy evidence database (PEDro) scale was used to assess the scoring for articles' risk of bias. The scoring of 12 studies ranges from 5-7 (out of 11 points), and study quality is moderate to high. RESULTS: Out of 285 identified studies, only 12 articles fulfilled all the eligibility criteria after screening. ICT could significantly improve trunk strength and sprint performance among various athlete populations using unstable surfaces or environments (i.e., BOSU ball, Swiss ball, wobble boards, suspension trainer, Sissel pillows, inflated disc, foam surface, Airex balance pad, Togu power ball, thera-band, elastic band and so on) than TCT using stable surfaces or environments (i.e., floor and bench). In addition, the ICT vs TCT intervention showed a moderate to large effect size (ES = -0.40-1.86; all p < 0.05) in improving trunk muscle strength and sprint performance. CONCLUSION: The finding suggests that different types of ICT benefit athletes, as this training method can effectively enhance trunk strength and sprint performance in athletes than TCT. Therefore, this study suggests that ICT should be considered in athletes' daily training routines for trunk strength and sprint performance.