The influence of elongation exercises on the anterior-posterior spine curvatures

Introduction: Elongation exercises are designed to reduce existing pathological or increased physiological curvatures of the spine. The aim of the study was to evaluate the changes occurring in the parameters describing the anterior-posterior spinal curvatures during the performance of symmetric elongation exercises. Material and methods: The study included 150 children aged 7–10 years: 82 girls and 68 boys. It was performed in June 2012, following prior parental and the subjects’ consent. The study design was approved by the Bioethical Committee of the Medical Faculty of Rzeszow University (number 05/07/2012). In each subject, an examination of the body posture was performed twice – first in a relaxed position and second during an elongation exercise. The Wilcoxon pair sequence test was used for statistical analysis. Results: The lumbosacral angle was significantly higher during the performance of an elongation exercise (p < 0.001), and so was the thoracolumbar angle (p < 0.001). The angle of the upper thoracic spine (p < 0.01) was significantly reduced. In the case of parameters describing thoracic kyphosis, a significant increase was observed both for the thoracic kyphosis angle (p < 0.01) and the depth of this part of the spine. As for the parameters describing lumbar lordosis, both the lordosis angle and its depth were significantly reduced (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001). Conclusions: 1. Elongation exercises reduce the depth of lumbar lordosis. 2. During elongation exercises thoracic kyphosis becomes deeper.