The Effects of Strengthening, Stretching and Comprehensive Exercises on Forward Shoulder Posture Correction

purpose: the forward shoulder (fs) is one of the most common deformities accounted for 60%of shoulder abnormalities.this study aimed to investigate the effects of a 6-weekstrength training,stretch training andcomprehensive training in patients with forward shoulder abnormalities. methods:this quasi-experimental study design pre-posttest with control group. forty femalesstudents with excessive forward shoulder angle (fs>52) were chosen using purposive samplingmethod. the average of age, weight, height and body mass index of the samples were 22.22±1.77years, 61.22±1.90 kg, 161.85±2.55 cm, and 23.37±0.9kg.m2 respectively. the subjects wererandomly divided into 4 groups ( each 10 subjects), 3 experimental and 1 control groups. the firstexperimental group performed strength training, second group stretch training and third groupcomprehensive training for 6 weeks. in this period, the control group did not receive any training.we used photogrammetric method to measure the angle of the forward shoulder. shoulder anglechanges of the subjects before and after 6 weeks were measured. data were analyzed usingpaired t-test, one-way analysis of variance and spss (21) (p≤0.05). results: according to study findings, paired t-test results in the experimental group showedthat the forward shoulder angle of the subjects in corrective exercises significantly decreased sothat after participating in 3 types of training program, strengthening(p=0.001, t=8.63), stretching(p=0.001, t=6.78) and comprehensive (p=0.001, t=12.11), the angle dropped in the order of 6.10,4.90 and 7.10 degrees. one-way analysis of variance (anova) showed that there are significantdifferences (p=0.001) among the effects of different exercises on the forward shoulder angle.based on tukey test results, the implementation of corrective exercises, strengthening (p=0.001),stretching (p=0.001), and comprehensive (p=0.001) showed a significant difference with thecontrol group. however, no significant differences were observed among the groups of strength,stretching and comprehensive trainings with each other. conclusion: the results demonstrated a significant decrease in the angle of forward shoulder inthe experimental group. therefore, using this program is recommended in subjects with thesedeformity.