The effect of additional proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) training on functional hop test in cerebral palsy athletes: a pilot clinical trial

Introductions. This study investigates the effects of additional proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) training on functional hop test in cerebral palsy athletes. Methods. This is a pilot randomized controlled trial study. The subjects were professional cerebral palsy athletes from National Paralympic Indonesia, 24 athletes aged 18-40 years divided into two groups (n = 12). The interventional group received 2 times per week resistance training and additional PNF training 3 times per week, and the control group underwent resistance training program only 2 times per week for 4 weeks on both legs. This study measured several variables, including age, body weight, body height, and body mass index. We measured functional hop test before and after 4 weeks of intervention by single hop test, triple hop test, crossover hop test in dominant and non-dominant legs. Results. There was a significant increase in the hop distance of the intervention group in the single hop test on the dominant side (p = 0.000) and non-dominant side (p = 0.000), triple hop test on the dominant side and non-dominant side (p = 0.000), crossover hop test on the dominant side (p = 0.000) and non-dominant side (p = 0.000). In the control group, there was also significant increase in hop distance on single hop test non-dominant (p = 0.007), triple hop test dominant (p = 0.011), triple hop test non-dominant (p = 0.026), crossover hop test dominant (p = 0.006), non-dominant crossover hop test (p = 0.003). There was no significant difference in the jump distance between the two groups on both sides of the leg, but there was a significant difference in the difference in the increase in jump distance between the two groups. Conclusion. There were better results of functional hop test in cerebral palsy athletes with the additional PNF training.