with their eyes open and arms at their sides comfortably for 30 seconds. Each foot was placed on a
separate force plate located under the treadmill belts and foot position was measured and maintained for each evaluation.
To measure dynamic balance, participants were asked to walk on the instrumented treadmill at their self-selected velocity.
The over-ground self-selected velocity was determined for each participant beforehand and the treadmill belt speed was set to
match that velocity during the evaluation. When it was determined that subjects were exhibiting natural walking movements
(after about 3–5 seconds), data for 5 consecutive strides were collected.
A total of 5 static and dynamic trials were conducted for each subject, and average values from the trials were used for data
analysis. Original COP data were collected at 1,000 Hz, and anterior-posterior (A-P) and medial-lateral (M-L) directional
COP sway, as well as velocity with time series, were computed and evaluated.
Independent samples t-test and χ2 analysis were used for homogeneity testing. The 8-week Pilates training effects were
assessed using a paired t-test, and an independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the differences in subordinate
variables between the groups. The level of significance for all comparisons was set as α=0.05.