Irene Toh, Seiya Liu, Hale Furey and Earl Brien
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division One student-athletes often experience back and shoulder injuries, among other musculoskeletal injuries, which can be stressful and difficult to recover from. Many injuries are sports specific, e.g., contact vs. non-contact or gender related, but most back and neck injuries can become chronic in nature. Often these injures can lead to less than desirable physical and emotional well-being. The current study aims to assess the user experience of 47 NCAA Division-One athletes for daily functional active wear technology designed to provide instant posture correction and immediate chest expansion to improve thoracic mobility and physical wellness. Results showed that 100% of the subjects were satisfied with the comfort level of the posture active wear, and 95% felt their posture improved after wear. Furthermore, over 90% of subjects would wear the posture active wear daily as well as recommend it to others. 80% of the subjects would wear the posture active wear for exercise, 92% liked the feel of the fabric, and 90% would like to use it as adjunct to physical therapy. Overall, the results of the current study indicate that competitive athletes find the tested posture active wear comfortable, effective in instantly correcting posture, would use it during exercise, would highly recommend it to others, and would use it as an adjunct to Physical Therapy. Overall this apparel is a promising option for posture correction, injury prevention and physical therapy for student athletes and further supports previous literature on the IFGfit™ posture correcting active wear.
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