A comparison of two modes of cervical exercise in adolescent male athletes.
OBJECTIVE
The Saturn-Ring is a new device that claims to increase cervical strength and flexibility. Therefore, the objective was to assess if use of the Saturn-Ring with conventional exercise would increase cervical strength, flexibility and circumference over conventional exercise alone.


METHODS
Subjects were randomly divided into two matched groups and a before/after design utilized. For pretest data, collection was done in a double-blind fashion. During the post-test, only the athlete knew the group in which he had participated.


METHODS
The entire study was conducted in a high school field house.


METHODS
Fifty football players randomly chosen from a high school team served as subjects for the study. One subject was randomly selected from the pool of potential players and a matched subject was selected for the second group according to age, height and weight. This continued until both groups had 25 subjects.


METHODS
In addition to normal football exercises and practice, the experimental group used the Saturn-Ring five times a week over the 8-wk exercise program.


METHODS
Cervical strength and flexibility (flexion, extension, right lateral flexion and left lateral flexion) and girth size of the neck were measured before and after an 8-wk exercise program.


RESULTS
Both groups showed significant gains in strength, flexibility and neck size. Further testing determined that the post-test results for the experimental group were significantly greater than the post-test results for the control group for neck sizes and all possible strength and flexibility measurements.


CONCLUSIONS
The result of this study indicate that Saturn-Ring exercises in conjunction with conventional exercises will significantly increase cervical strength, flexibility and size over conventional exercises alone. There were several implications for further study: a) replicate the study to single out the effect of the Saturn-Ring alone, b) replicate the study with a broader spectrum of the population and include injured patients and c) research is needed to assess if the use of the Saturn-Ring can decrease the potential for cervical injury.
Professional Centre, Inc., Fairhope, AL 36532.
J
J
Stump
G
G
Rash
J
J
Semon
W
W
Christian
K
K
Miller
D000293:Adolescent; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D009132:Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D009333:Neck; D019838:Neck Injuries; D011897:Random Allocation; D013178:Sports Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation*