Effects of Stretching Exercises on Upper Crossed Syndrome in Women after a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

  Upper crossed syndrome (UCS) can exert adverse effects on rehabilitation after a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of stretching exercises on UCS in women undergoing CABG. The present quasi-experimental study was carried out on 30 women in Shahid Madani hospital of Tabriz, Iran. According to a similar study, the participants were selected through a convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to two groups of A and B. Those in group A participated in an 8-week intervention of stretching exercises (3 sessions per week) in accordance with the existing protocol. The data were statistically analyzed using analysis of covariance, the dependent t test, and the Wilcoxon test at the significance level of 0.05. The results indicated a significant difference between the two groups in terms of kyphosis angle (P=0.001) and forward head angle (P=0.019) after the intervention. The data analysis also showed that stretching exercises had no significant effect on the improvement of angles of left and right shoulders (P=0.109 and P=0.111) respectively. The study findings suggest that corrective and stretching exercises might improve head forward posture and kyphosis angle, but do not affect shoulder angle.