The immediate effects of whole body vibration on cervical joint position sense in subjects with forward head posture

Forward head posture (FHP) is considered to be one of the most common postural disorders in the spinal column. Recently studies have reported impaired proprioception to be one of the results of prolonged FHP. Studies have suggested that vibration stimulus is capable of improving joint proprioception. Thus the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of one session of whole body vibration (WBV) training in standing position on cervical joint position sense in individuals with FHP. Thirty (12 females and 18 males) individuals with FHP were randomly assigned to a vibration (experimental) or non-vibration (control) group. The vibration group experienced 5 sets of WBV while holding the head and neck in retraction. The non-vibration group held the same position for the same time without any vibration. Four target angles were established to assess the absolute and constant joint position sense (JPS) errors for each individual. Results showed significant reduction (P<0/05) in JPS absolute errors in 2 target angles in the vibration group when compared to the non-vibration group. It was concluded that relative improvement in cervical JPS could be achieved when adding additional sensory input from WBV stimulus to the head and neck retraction exercise.