The Effects of Forward Head Posture deformity on Athlete’s Performance; a Systematic Review Study

Some studies showed that athletes are more susceptible to postural deformities more than non-athletes. Professional athletes tend to different kinds of postural abnormalities because of performing repeated exercises for long time periods. In other words, their bodies adapt to physical positions and muscle imbalances needed for those special trainings. This study aims at systematic review of the effect of forward head posture (FHP) on sport performance of athletes in different sports.Persian and English articles have searched by related key words using Sid, Irandoc, PubMed, Google scholar and some other valid sport and medical journals and search engines. ۲۹۲ articles were found and after applying inclusion criteria only ۳۰ articles were related to FHP and ۷ articles directly studied FHP in different sports athletes.The FHP position leads to changes in effective postural mechanisms, increase in energy consumption, and weakness of cervical muscles. The decrease in serratus anterior and increase in upper trapezius activation and recruitment in FHP confirms that these muscles act as force couple. In fact, the decrease in performance of one of them leads in an increase in performance of the other. Moreover, the theory that the change in head posture accompanies the change in performance of scapular and shoulder muscles is confirmed. Results of another research showed a significant difference between the strength of deep neck flexor muscles of athletes with FHP and healthy athletes (p=۰.۰۰۲). That is while the strength of superficial neck flexor muscles in the two groups had no significant difference (p=۰.۸۰۳). Studies showed that FHP can leads in a ۳۰% loss of lungs capacity and causes cervical vertebra moves forward in which imposes pressure on disks. The vertebra artery may be pressed and blood circulation to brain be decreased. Also continued contraction of occipitalis muscles that help raise the chin, intensifies this state.

کلیدواژه ها:

postural deformity ، Muscle Imbalance ، Forward head posture ، Athlete