J. Stump et al., A COMPARISON OF 2 MODES OF CERVICAL EXERCISE IN ADOLESCENT MALE-ATHLETES, Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 16(3), 1993, pp. 155-160
Objective: The Saturn-Ring is a new device that claims to increase cer
vical strength and flexibility. Therefore, the objective was to assess
if use of the Saturn-Ring with conventional exercise would increase c
ervical strength, flexibility and circumference over conventional exer
cise alone. Design: Subjects were randomly divided into two matched gr
oups and a before/after design utilized. For pretest data, collection
was done in a double-blind fashion. During the post-test, only the ath
lete knew the group in which he had participated. Setting: The entire
study was conducted in a high school field house. Participants: Fifty
football players randomly chosen from a high school team served as sub
jects for the study. One subject was randomly selected from the pool o
f potential players and a matched subject was selected for the second
group according to age, height and weight. This continued until both g
roups had 25 subjects. Intervention: In addition to normal football ex
ercises and practice, the experimental group used the Saturn-Ring five
times a week over the 8-wk exercise program. Main Outcome Measures: C
ervical strength and flexibility (flexion, extension, right lateral fl
exion and left lateral flexion) and girth size of the neck were measur
ed before and after an 8-wk exercise program. Results: Both groups sho
wed significant gains in strength, flexibility and neck size. Further
testing determined that the post-test results for the experimental gro
up were significantly greater than the post-test results for the contr
ol group for neck sizes and all possible strength and flexibility meas
urements. Conclusions: The result of this study indicate that Saturn-R
ing exercises in conjunction with conventional exercises will signific
antly increase cervical strength, flexibility and size over convention
al exercises alone. There were several implications for further study:
a) replicate the study to single out the effect of the Saturn-Ring al
one, b) replicate the study with a broader spectrum of the population
and include injured patients and c) research is needed to assess if th
e use of the Saturn-Ring can decrease the potential for cervical injur
y.