The effectiveness of exercise therapy in relieving chronic non-specific neck pain in athletes

mohammad heidariy nia¹ Masoud Mir Moazzi² Bijan Goodarzi³ Mehdi Yousefi⁴

1) Master of Sports Pathology and Corrective Movements, Boroujerd University, Boroujerd, Iran
2) Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences,Islamic Azad University,Central Tehran Branch,Tehran,Iran
3) Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd Branch, Boroujerd, Iran
4) Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran

IOI Code : XEAD-GCDAH
Publication : Third International Conference and Fifth National Conference on Innovations Sport Sciences(umasport2021.ir)
Abstract :
    Introduction:Chronic neck pain is a common problem and is often associated with changes in sensory-motor functions such as decreased neck depth, altered neck muscle coordination and increased postural fluctuations. The aim of this study was the effectiveness of exercise therapy in relieving chronic non-specific neck pain in athletes in Khorramabad. Materials and Methods:The present study was a pre-test-post-test clinical trial with an intervention group and a control group. 30 athletes with chronic neck pain were purposefully selected and randomly divided into two groups of exercise therapy (n =15) and control (n =15). Evaluation of pain intensity variable was performed before and immediately after eight weeks of 3 sessions (30 minutes) of rehabilitation exercises by visual scale of pain from both intervention and control groups. Data were analyzed using Student s t-test. Results:In comparison between the two groups after treatment, a significant difference was observed in pain intensity (p≤0.001), so that a significant decrease was observed in the intervention group. Also, the results of paired t-test showed that there was a significant difference in the intervention group before and after the test (p≤0.001), but no significant difference was observed for the control group. Conclusion:Rehabilitation exercises including stabilizing and strengthening neck exercises improve pain in athletes with chronic neck pain, so it is recommended that rehabilitation exercises be used as a suitable and practical method in improving athletes with non-specific chronic neck pain.

Keywords : exercise therapy chronic neck pain athlete