Assessing the impact of certain exercises on the spatial head posture.

OBJECTIVES: The head constitutes 6% of the total body weight, which is linked to the cervical spine and all other joints through the kinematic chain by various muscles. The forward head posture is one of the most common postural disorders and seems to be especially dangerous. The goal of the work was to assess the impact of 4 weeks of training neck and nape muscles on the head posture.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The subjects were 20 participants, who performed neck exercises for 20 days. The head posture in a sagittal and frontal plane was assessed photogrammetrically twice: before and after the exercises. The following have been used for the assessment: craniovertebral (CV) angle, head tilt angle (HT), and frontal head tilt angle (FHT).

RESULTS: After a 20-day program of neck and nape exercises the values of specific angles were compared. The results indicated significant changes in the head posture. In the sagittal plane: the average value of the CV angle before the training was 47.17°, and 50.82° after the training; the average value of the HT angle before the exercises was at 20.99°, and 24.31° after. In the frontal plane the average value of the FHT angle before the exercises was at 2.71°, and after 20 days of training the average value of this angle decreased to 2°.

CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that a short, home-based targeted exercise program can improve head posture. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2019;32(1):43-51.