[Purpose] The aim of this study was to examine the effects of horse-riding simulator exercise and Kendall exercise on forward head posture. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty elderly college students with a forward head posture were randomly divided into two groups for 15 persons each, a horse-riding simulator group and Kendall exercise group, and performed exercise for eight weeks. [Results] The horse-riding simulator group and Kendall exercise group showed significant differences after the intervention in New York state posture rating, craniovertebral angle, and cranial rotation angle. The horse-riding simulator group showed a significantly smaller value than the Kendall exercise group for New York state posture rating evaluation after the intervention. [Conclusion] The results of this study indicate that horse-riding simulator exercise is more effective on forward head posture than Kendall exercise. Therefore, horse-riding simulator exercise can be used as a new simple treatment method for the ever-growing forward head posture.

Shu-Yi Chen⋅Seung-Kyu Kim⋅Ki-Hyun Kim⋅In-Sil Lee⋅Gak HwangBo. KSPM 2016;11:79-84. https://doi.org/10.13066/kspm.2016.11.4.79

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to access the effect of weight bearing exercise (treadmill exercise) and non-weight-bearing exercise (swimming exercise) on gait in the recovery process after a sciatic nerve crush injury. [Subjects and Methods] Rats were randomly divided into a swimming group (n=3) with non-weight-bearing exercise after a sciatic nerve crush and a treadmill group (n=3) with weight bearing exercise after a sciatic nerve crush. Dartfish is a program that can analyze and interpret motion through video images. The knee lateral epicondyle, lateral malleolus, and metatarsophalangeal joint of the fifth toe were marked by black dots before recording. [Results] There were significant differences in TOK (knee angle toe off) and ICK (knee angle at initial contact) in the swimming group and in TOK, ICA (ankle angle at initial contact), and ICK in the treadmill group. In comparison between groups, there were significant differences in TOA (ankle angle in toe off) and ICA at the 7th day. [Conclusion] There was no difference between weight bearing and non-weight-bearing exercise in sciatic nerve damage, and both exercises accelerated the recovery process in this study.

The effectiveness of breathing interventions on postural alignment, pain reduction, and functional improvement in patients with forward head posture (FHP) and chronic neck pain remains uncertain. Previously conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that involved breathing interventions were identified through searches of the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Studies were included if they applied diaphragmatic breathing, breathing muscle training, or feedback breathing exercises for at least 2 weeks to chronic neck pain (duration ≥ 3 months) and/or forward head posture. The craniovertebral angle (CVA), the visual analog scale (VAS), and the neck disability index (NDI) were the primary outcome measures. The results showed that breathing interventions had a moderate effect size in terms of improving the CVA. Limited effects were observed for pain reduction, and improvements in neck disability approached statistical significance. However, despite these positive findings, the overall evidence was rated as ‘very low certainty’ in the GRADE assessment, primarily due to high heterogeneity among studies, limited sample sizes, and the potential for unit-of-analysis errors in diagnosis-based subgroup analyses. Consequently, their overall effectiveness in chronic neck pain was limited. Future research is needed to explore a multidisciplinary approach to neck pain using standardized protocols and larger samples.

Min-Bong Kang, Ju-Hak Kim, Ki-Hyun Kim. J Kor Phys Ther 2025;37:165-70. https://doi.org/10.18857/jkpt.2025.37.4.165