The relationship between biorhythms and injuries in female college gymnastic participants

Graduation date: 1985Biorhythm theory proponents believe that humans have\ud a 23-day physical cycle, a 28-day emotional cycle, and a\ud 33-day intellectual cycle. According to biorhythm theories\ud a person in the positive portion of any single cycle, the performance potential is enhanced for those tasks related to\ud that particular rhythm. When each cycle crosses the base\ud line from positive to negative, or vice versa, that point\ud represents a critical day in that particular cycle. During\ud critical days, the performance potential is considered highly\ud unstable. The theory proposes that incidents of human\ud error are especially numerous on critical days.\ud The purpose of this study was to determine if athletic injuries of female college gymnasts become more numerous with respect to critical days of physical, emotional,\ud and/or intellectual biorhythm cycles. Data were collected\ud from a sample of fourteen injured female gymnasts of Oregon State University. A total of thirty injuries were recorded\ud over a period from 1981 to 1984.\ud Critical days were calculated for each of the injured\ud individuals in accordance with two definitions of critical\ud days. Chi-Square with Yates' correction for continuity was\ud employed to determine statistical significance at the .05\ud level of confidence.\ud In each instance the hypothesis testing rejected the\ud null hypothesis. The number of injuries which occurred\ud during critical days or negative phases of biorhythm\ud cycles were not more than the number of injuries which\ud occurred during non-critical days or positive phases.\ud Therefore, the biorhythm theories were not supported by\ud the data of this study