The purpose of this study was to compare the sling exercise group using vibration stimulation and the sling exercise group without vibration for 24 patients with non-specific neck pain. The effectiveness of neck vibration-stimulated sling exercise as a clinical intervention method was investigated by comparatively analysing the effects on the cervical range of motion, pain, muscular endurance, and neck disability. Subjects of the study were randomly assigned to a sling exercise group using vibration stimulation (n=12) and a sling exercise group without vibration (n=12). The two groups were mainly in their 20s and 30s. Cervical range of motion, pain, muscular endurance, and neck disability were measured before the intervention and re-evaluated after 3 and 6 weeks, respectively. In both groups, four sling movements were performed within 30 minutes per session twice a week for a total of 6 weeks. In the sling exercise group using vibration stimulation, 4 types of sling movements were performed using a vibration frequency of 25~35Hz, and 4 types of sling movements were performed in the sling exercise group that did not use vibrations for comparative analysis.

The research results are as follows.

1. Changes in the cervical range of motion are related to neck flexion, extension, Lt. flexion, Rt. flexion, and Rt. rotation in both groups showed a significant increase between time periods. However, Lt. rotation showed no significant increase between the two groups.

2. Changes in neck pain were shown to have an interactive effect between group and time. In addition, both groups showed significant changes in Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) of pain between measurement periods.

3. Changes in the endurance of deep cervical flexion muscles have an interactive effect between groups and periods. Both groups showed significant changes between measurement periods. In addition, it was found that there was a statistical difference between the sling exercise group using vibration stimulation and the sling exercise group that did not apply vibration at the measurement points before, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks later.

4. Changes in the neck disability index were found to have an interactive effect between group and period. Both groups showed significant changes between measurement periods. And it was found that there was a statistical difference between the sling exercise group using vibration stimulation and the sling exercise group that did not apply vibration at the measurement points before and after 3 weeks, and 6 weeks.


As a result of the above study, it was found that cervical stabilization exercise using a sling accompanied by vibration had an effect on cervical range of motion, pain, muscular endurance, and functional disability and although each group was effective, the group using vibration for sling was showed to be more effective. Therefore, through the results of this study, cervical stabilization exercises in various directions as a therapeutic intervention in clinical practice could be proposed as a therapeutic exercise method for more effective activation of deep cervical flexion muscles.