Habitual and ready positions in female table tennis players and their relation to the prevalence of back pain.

This study demonstrated the dominance of kyphotic body posture in table tennis players, which can be caused by many hours of using the ready position during playing. After adopting this position, there are significant differences in the angles of anterior and posterior spinal curvatures compared to the habitual posture. This may be the cause of overloads and pain complaints reported by the study participants. Adopting the ready position is also associated with an increase in asymmetry in the position (rotation) of the pelvis and spinous processes (frontal plane). Therefore, training programs should be extended with exercises that relieve the spine in the vertical line and exercises that improve symmetry of the work of the upper limbs, body trunk muscles and the pelvis.