Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the change of multidirectional lip-closing force in continuing and discontinuing button-pull exercise training. The subjects were 15 healthy males (mean age: 30.1±1.8 years). One set of button-pull exercises consisted of performing button-pull exercises 7 times for 1 min. The subjects carried out 3 sets of button-pull exercises every day for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks of training, the button-pull exercises were discontinued. The multidirectional lip-closing force was measured every week for 8 weeks by the multidirectional lip-closing force measurement system.
The multidirectional lip-closing force of the center part of the upper and lower lips, and that of the right oblique upper part were significantly increased by the exercises after 3 weeks. The multidirectional lipclosing force was not significantly different between 3 weeks and 4 weeks. It is suggested that the buttonpull exercises require a certain training period, and that the lip-closing force achieved by training reaches a plateau after a certain period of time.
After discontinuing the training, there was a significant decrease of lip-closing force in 2 weeks. Therefore, it is important to continue button-pull exercises. The lip-closing force is large in the center part of the upper and lower lip, and is weak at the corner of the mouth. Thus, it was found that there is directional specificity in multidirectional lip-closing force.
