Basic Body Awareness Therapy for Healthy Young Adults

Background:Musculoskeletal pain, postural control impairments, and reduced movement quality areincreasingly prevalent among young adults, partly due to sedentary lifestyles and lowphysical activity levels. Basic Body Awareness Therapy (BBAT) is a physiotherapy‐basedmind‐body approach that aims to improve body awareness, postural stability, movementquality, and balance through controlled functional movements. Although BBAT hasdemonstrated beneficial effects in various clinical populations, evidence regarding itseffectiveness in healthy young adults remains limited.Objective:This study aims to investigate the effects of a 12‐week BBAT program on musculoskeletalpain, spinal mobility, balance, and flexibility in healthy young adults.Methods:This randomized controlled trial will be conducted at the Healthy Living Laboratory ofthe University of Health Sciences, Gülhane Faculty of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation,between June 2026 and May 2027. Healthy individuals aged 18‐40 years will be recruitedthrough social media announcements and voluntary participation. Participants will berandomly allocated to either an intervention group or a control group.The intervention group will participate in BBAT sessions once weekly for 12 weeks, witheach session lasting 45‐60 minutes. The control group will receive no intervention duringthe study period. Inclusion criteria include being 18‐40 years old, not havingparticipated in structured body‐awareness‐based programs (e.g., BBAT, yoga, or Pilates)within the previous six months, and being able to complete the assessment proceduresindependently. Individuals with neurological, vestibular, rheumatological, or severeorthopedic disorders, recent surgery or injury affecting the spine or lower extremities,pregnancy, acute infection, or medications affecting balance will be excluded.Spinal mobility and flexibility will be the primary outcome measure. Secondary outcomeswill include musculoskeletal pain and balance. Assessments will be performed before andafter the intervention period.Sample size estimation was conducted using G*Power 3.1 based on a medium effect size (f =0.25), α = 0.05, power = 80%, two groups, and two measurement points. The minimumrequired sample size was calculated as 36 participants. Considering a potential dropoutrate of 15‐20%, at least 40 participants (20 per group) will be recruited.Hypotheses:Compared with the control group, participants receiving BBAT are expected to demonstratesignificantly greater improvements in (1) spinal mobility , (2) flexibility ,(3)musculoskeletal pain, and (4) balance outcomes.