The effect of the eight weeks Pilates exercises on sagittal spinal posture abnormalities in women heart patients after open heart surgery

Postural abnormality of the spine associated with physiological, functional and psychological disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks Pilates exercises on forward head, kyphosis and lordosis in women with cardiac patients after open-heart surgery.
22 women with heart disease were selected and randomly divided into two equal experimental (n=11, mean and standard deviation, age 60.4±8.8 year, height 157.5±6 cm, weight 77.5±13 kg) and control group (n=11, mean and standard deviation, age 62.8±8.1 year, height 154.4±3 cm, weight 77.4±9.5 kg). The experimental group for eight weeks, three sessions per week and each session began one hour to do Pilates exercises. Angle of the forward head was measured by special goniometer and kyphosis and lordosis angle value were measured by flexible ruler. The data were analyzed using the independent and paired t-tests.
Findings showed the significant improvement of the forward head angle (P0.05). In addition, no significant difference was found in the average lordosis angle in the experimental group compared to the control group (P>0.05).
The results of this study can be concluded that Pilates exercise causes improved forward head posture in patients. So, it can be used as intervention training for this group of patients.