european college of sport science

Friday, June 26th, 2009
Discussion: This study provides some evidence that a number of variables exist that can alter the experience of organized sport involvement.
However, findings of the present study cannot support the general notion that a mixed organized sport context offers more opportunities
for increased social capital among its members compared to a separate sport context. Moreover, the results do neither provide
evidence for the assumed social integrative potential of an organized sport context as the direction of this causal relation is still to be
firmly determined.
ORGANIZATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR INCLUDING LOW-ACTIVE GROUPS IN WORKPLACE EXERCISE PROGRAMS
BJØRNSTAD, T.
NORWEGIAN SCHOOL OF SPORT SCIENCE
Project description: Organizational requirements for including low-active groups in workplace exercise programs
Thor Christian Bjørnstad, PhD student at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, thor.bjornstad@nih.com
In resent years we have witnessed an increasing concern regarding workplace health issues. A driving contextual force is the consensual
political ambitions aimed at stopping the ongoing trend of more and more people leaving the workforce. In this regard the political
initiative put forward by the Minister of Government Administration and Reform, in collaboration with the Confederation of Norwegian
Enterprise (NHO) and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), has intensified the focus on health related to the workplace
environment . The economically motivated concerns have increased funding to research , besides having reintroduced and revitalized
exercise as a preventive measure at work. Although the traditional gymnastics is abandoned for more sophisticated exercise, like aerobics,
golf or yoga, the overall intention still is to include the majority of the workforce. However, exercise as a preventive measure is first
and foremost targeted at the inactive part of the population.
Within this context, my project focuses on the work carried out by the Norwegian Federation for Company Sports (Norges Bedriftsidrettsforbund:
NBF), as I follow their intervention in three different organizations. The NBF is part of The Norwegian Olympic Committee
and Confederation of Sports (NIF) and has 310,000 members divided into 4,691 teams. As their primary goal is to motivate people to
exercise in a work place context they provide workplace exercise programs to companies in both private and public sectors. These
programs aim at getting people who do not normally exercise to get in physical shape in accordance with their own preferences. The
programs are developed in close cooperation with each company, assisting the company, drawing up action plans, implementing and
evaluating initiatives through project groups where representatives from the NBF is working together with company representatives.
The central research question will address: What kind of organizational prerequisites influence on the implementation process of a
workplace exercise program for including low-active employees?
The intention is to observe and analyze the processes these kinds of interventions generate, identifying the possible consequences for
including low-active groups in a work place exercise program. The research question addresses various potential influential organizational
levels: as individual preferences to health and exercise, socioeconomic background, the implementation as a working process and
possible prerequisites external to the organization. The ambition is to locate the required conditions for getting inactive people to get fit,
beyond mere individual factors, but also including the social environment at their workplace.
15:15 - 16:45
Oral presentations
OP-RE02 Rehabilitation 2
FUNCTIONAL WEAK LINK TESTING AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH LOWER EXTREMITY INJURY HISTORY: A STUDY ON
FEMALE TEENAGE ATHLETES
JOHNSEN, M., JOHANSEN, K., SEILER, S.
UNIVERSITY OF AGDER
Introduction: The lumbo-pelvic (core) muscles are important for optimal energy transfer through the kinetic chain. It is hypothesized that
core stability plays a major role in musculoskeletal injury prevention. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of diminished
core muscle capacity in young female athletes, and to quantify the relationship between results from 3 rotational “weak link tests” and
lower extremity injury history.
Methods: Female athletes (n= 90, 17.3 ± 1.0 yrs), participating in a variety of competitive sports (football, team handball, martial arts,
running, etc. ) performed three weak link tests and completed a questionnaire regarding their lower extremity and lower back injury
history. Weak links were defined as 1) >6mm depression of the navicular bone from seated to standing, 2) > 2.5 degree pelvic rotation
during 30 deg abduction from a supine bridge position (performed in slings, with instrumented visual feedback), and 3) clinically visible
inward rotation and/or adduction of the femur, and/or failure to achieve 90 degree knee angle during a one legged squat.
Results: Navicular drop was not an independent predictor for lower extremity injury risk. Only 5 of 90 subjects had >6mm depression in
either foot. While 41% failed the supine abduction test (one or both sides), test failure was not significantly related to injury history. Only 7
of 41 subjects who passed the one- legged squat test on both legs (1LS PASS) reported previous acute knee injury compared to 24 of 48
subjects (RR 2.92, p