A comparison of the effects of six weeks of Pilates exercises, corrective exercises, and Alexander's Technique on the upper cross syndrome in adolescent girls aged 13 to 16 years

The present study aims to address the question of whether six weeks of Pilates exercises, corrective exercises, and Alexander's Technique can have different effects on UCS in 13 to 16-year-old teenage girls. Which exercises are more effective?

Clinical trial with three intervention groups, with parallel groups, single-blind, randomized, phase 1 on 45 students.

The samples were trained in the Corrective Exercise Clinic of the Education and Training Administration of Quchan. Each session lasted one hour, three sessions per week, and for a duration of six weeks. The samples were not aware of which exercise group they were in or which exercises they were performing, to assess the effect on their UCS (they were blinded). The examiner was fully aware of the exercise protocol (not blinded). Each exercise session for the different groups would begin with a 10-minute warm-up and end with a 5-minute cool-down. The remaining time would be allocated to the specific exercises of each group (Corrective Exercise group, Pilates group, and Alexander Technique group).

In order to be included in the study, participants had to have postural abnormalities such as kyphosis, FH, and RS simultaneously and express a willingness to participate. Observing any pathological symptoms, history of fractures, surgeries, joint diseases, and injuries in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine region, skeletal-muscular imbalances, lower limb cross syndrome, having BMI outside the normal range, and having regular physical activity of at least 6 hours per week were considered as exclusion criteria from the study.

Pilates exercises(N=15), corrective exercises (N=15), and Alexander's Technique (N=15).

Upper cross syndrome

All middle school students in the city of Quchan will undergo initial evaluation by the physical education teacher at their school. Students suspected of having Upper Crossed Syndrome (UCS) will undergo secondary evaluation by a researcher. Among those diagnosed with severe UCS, a total of 45 individuals will be randomly selected as simple random samples and divided into three 15-member groups: Corrective Exercises (PE) group (N=15), Pilates group (N=15), and Corrective Exercises group (N=15). When the population size is limited and homogeneous, simple random sampling is highly effective as it provides equal chance of selection to all individuals in the population. Therefore, simple random sampling (systematic) will be utilized. In this method, it is assumed that the individuals in the population are homogeneous, and each will be assigned a number or code from 1 to N. Then, the sample individuals will be selected with specific regularity.

Only the participants will be unaware of the study group assignment and the researchers will be informed of the exercises that each group will receive.

The data files will be available to researchers after the publication of the abstracted article

After publication the article

Other researchers

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All researchers

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