Effect of selected stretch- strength exercises on primary school girls with forward shoulder deformity

Background and Aim: The purpose of the present research was to investigate the effect of selected stretch- strength exercises on forward shoulder deformity in primary school girls. Materials and Methods: Twenty girl students with forward shoulder posture were randomly selected from four primary schools of Noorabad city, using a posture grid. They signed the informed consent prior to participation in the study. After measuring forward shoulder posture by the double square, the participants were divided into control and experimental groups according to the shoulders distance from the wall. The subjects in the experimental group, then, were asked to perform a 6-week stretch-strengthening treatment protocol. The dependent and independent sample t-tests were used to find the differences at significance level of 0.05. Results: The results showed a significant 12% decrease in forward shoulder posture (p= 0.008) and a significant 9% decrease in the inter-scapular distance (p= 0.001) in the experimental group post-treatment. However, there was no significant difference in the control group for either of the variables (p >0.05).Conclusion: The results showed that the selected corrective exercise protocol led to improve forward shoulder posture in primary school girls.