Objective Neuromuscular training post-concussion is effective in reducing future injury risk. Our purpose was to determine the feasibility of an 8-week virtual neuromuscular training (vNMT) program using a novel, smartphone-based platform in uninjured adults.

Design Randomized controlled trial.

Setting Academic sports medicine center.

Participants Forty healthy participants 22–34 years of age (mean=261.3 years, 70% female) were randomized (stratified by sex) to control or vNMT conditions.

Interventions The vNMT group completed an 8-week intervention, consisting of 3 asynchronous, self-guided workouts/week using a smartphone-based platform. Workouts were adapted from previous research on injury risk reduction in concussion and included neuromuscular focused exercises (balancing, jumping, and strengthening tasks) of incrementally increasing difficulty. The smartphone-based platform provided instructions for each exercise using video and text descriptions.

Outcome Measures Number of workouts completed, average workout duration, and percentage of total possible workouts completed.

Main Results Twenty participants were randomized to vNMT conditions: n=15 completed the intervention. Of the 24 possible workouts in the 8-week vNMT program, participants completed 13.76.0 workouts (range: 4–22 workouts) and spent 17.38.0 minutes per workout (range: 7.35–37.91 minutes). Overall adherence was 57.225.0% (range: 16.7–91.7%) where n=10 (67%) had an overall compliance >50%. There were no adverse reactions or injuries.

Conclusions The majority of participants were moderately adherent with an asynchronous, at-home vNMT intervention designed to reduce injury risk following concussion. Our results support the feasibility of a smartphone-based rehabilitation program. Future work seeks to shift clinical practice by integrating this model into concussion management to reduce injuries following return-to-sport post-concussion.