Traditional motor games such as the wheelbarrow, hula-hoop, or roly-poly toy can activate core musculature as much as or more than conventional exercises like classic abdominal crunches or side planks. This is one of the conclusions from a study conducted at the Research Center for Sport (CID) of the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH), published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise.
A six-week intervention with 76 adolescents from a Secondary Education institute showed that games were a more appealing option and increased the intention to practice them again. Core muscle training is key for postural control and general physical fitness in adolescence. However, conventional exercises can be repetitive and reduce interest, especially in Physical Education classes.
Francisco José Vera García, a professor in the Department of Sport Sciences at UMH and lead author of the study, explains that they wanted to verify if some games that naturally engage core muscles could provide a stimulus comparable to the exercises typically used for training it, but with a different experience for those practicing them.
In the first study, 20 young adults performed two conventional core exercises (the crunch and the side plank) and four motor games (wheelbarrow, hula-hoop, roly-poly toy, and 'chicken fight'). Researchers measured the activation of different core muscles using surface electromyography. Results show that games produced similar or higher activation levels than conventional exercises, particularly in the oblique muscles.
The 'wheelbarrow' was one of the activities that most challenged the abdominal musculature of the person performing the 'wheelbarrow' role. The 'chicken fight' stood out for oblique muscle activation, while the 'hula-hoop' produced more moderate but more homogeneous activation. Although standardizing movements in a lab may limit some intense actions, it allows for reliable analysis of each task's characteristic muscle demand.
In the second study, 76 adolescents were divided into three groups: one performed a core program based on traditional games, another on conventional exercises, and a third control group. Through questionnaires, boredom, enjoyment, and the intention to practice these activities again were evaluated. Adolescents who trained through games reported less boredom and a greater intention to practice them again than those who performed conventional exercises.
Professor Vera García points out that games should not always replace conventional exercises but rather expand the available options. Depending on the occasion, activities can be selected that produce adequate muscle demand while also being more attractive to certain groups. Enjoyment is particularly important for promoting adherence to physical exercise, as an exercise can be physiologically effective but ineffective if people get bored and stop practicing it.
The next step will be to verify to what extent this increased intention to continue practicing translates into greater long-term adherence. The study also involved CID UMH researchers José Luis López Elvira and Amaya Prat Luri, professor Belén Flores Parodi, and researcher José Ignacio Alonso Roque.
