Effectiveness of the Alexander technique on the static and dynamic balance of young men with upper crossed syndrome
Poster Presentation
Paper ID : 1534-SSRC
Authors
1Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
2Department of Sports Pathology and Corrective Movements, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
3Department of Music, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Introduction: Studies show that individuals with upper crossed syndrome have poor balance compared to healthy people for a variety of reasons, including leaning their center of gravity forward. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Alexander technique on the static and dynamic balance of young men with upper crossed syndrome.
Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 24 subjects were purposefully selected and assigned to the experimental and control groups. After measuring the static and dynamic balance by the Sharpened Romberg and Timed Up and Go tests in both group's pre - test stage, the experimental group underwent 12 sessions of Alexander technique training during 6 weeks. The duration of individual sessions were 40 and group sessions 60 minutes. The purpose of the Alexander technique training protocol was to increase body awareness, to correct inappropriate motor habits and to correct faulty movement patterns. During the training sessions, subjects were taught the Alexander technique via manual guidance and tactile, verbal, visual, and proprioception feedbacks. After collecting data, examining the normality of data distribution by the Shapiro-Wilk test and verifying the required assumptions, the Analysis of covariance and Paired sample t-test were used to analyze the data.
Results: The final results of the study showed that the training of Alexander technique had a significant effect on the static and dynamic balance (P<0/001). In fact, the results showed high effectiveness of Alexander technique on static and dynamic balance of subjects based on the observed effect sizes in this study.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, the researchers concluded that the Alexander technique had a high effectiveness on the static and dynamic balance and generally improved the balance of the subjects. Considering the importance of the balance in health and daily activities, the researchers suggested that health and rehabilitation professionals can apply the Alexander technique as a psycho physical re-education method to improve balance in young people with upper crossed syndrome.
Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 24 subjects were purposefully selected and assigned to the experimental and control groups. After measuring the static and dynamic balance by the Sharpened Romberg and Timed Up and Go tests in both group's pre - test stage, the experimental group underwent 12 sessions of Alexander technique training during 6 weeks. The duration of individual sessions were 40 and group sessions 60 minutes. The purpose of the Alexander technique training protocol was to increase body awareness, to correct inappropriate motor habits and to correct faulty movement patterns. During the training sessions, subjects were taught the Alexander technique via manual guidance and tactile, verbal, visual, and proprioception feedbacks. After collecting data, examining the normality of data distribution by the Shapiro-Wilk test and verifying the required assumptions, the Analysis of covariance and Paired sample t-test were used to analyze the data.
Results: The final results of the study showed that the training of Alexander technique had a significant effect on the static and dynamic balance (P<0/001). In fact, the results showed high effectiveness of Alexander technique on static and dynamic balance of subjects based on the observed effect sizes in this study.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, the researchers concluded that the Alexander technique had a high effectiveness on the static and dynamic balance and generally improved the balance of the subjects. Considering the importance of the balance in health and daily activities, the researchers suggested that health and rehabilitation professionals can apply the Alexander technique as a psycho physical re-education method to improve balance in young people with upper crossed syndrome.
Keywords