Effectiveness of Customized Exergames to Improve Postural Control in High School Physical Education

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of customized exergames, with different cognitive loads, on static and dynamic postural control compared with traditional exercises in a group of adolescents. The participants in this study were 30 healthy adolescents, aged 12–14 years, divided into three groups. Each group trained for two weeks (2 sessions/week) using traditional physical education exercises, exergames with low cognitive loads, or exergames with high cognitive load. Participants’ quiet standing, forward limit of stability, and pattern tracking were measured before and after the intervention. Neither traditional exercises nor exergames improved the postural control during quiet standing tasks. Interactions with customized exergames, with both high and low cognitive loads, provided increased improvements in the forward limit of stability and improved dynamic weight shifts after the intervention compared with traditional exercises. No differences in the effects were observed between exergames with different cognitive loads. Exergames were more effective than traditional exercises for improving the dynamic aspects of postural control and stability in adolescents. The cognitive requirements for the concurrent cognitive task associated with exergames could not be sufficiently demanding to affect postural control learning.