Background and Aim: Upper crossed syndrome (UCS) is operationally treated in this review as a postural and neuromuscular pattern involving the cervical spine, shoulder girdle and upper thoracic region. Forward head posture, rounded shoulders, thoracic kyphosis, neck pain or cervicogenic headache alone were not considered synonymous with UCS. The aim was to synthesize intervention studies in which UCS was explicitly named or operationalized, while reporting the directness of evidence for related postural or cervical conditions.

Methods: Studies published between 2010 and 2026 were sought in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, SID and Magiran. The original search, screening and data extraction were conducted by one researcher and the manuscript was checked by the supervisor; duplicate independent screening was not performed. Corrective exercise, soft-tissue release and multimodal protocols were classified separately. Because populations, interventions, comparators, instruments and follow-up times were heterogeneous, findings were synthesized narratively and no meta-analysis was performed.

Results: Twenty-three studies were retained in the original evidence table. Most directly labelled UCS, whereas three reports primarily addressed mechanical neck pain, chronic neck pain or cervicogenic headache with related postural features and were interpreted as indirect evidence. Corrective exercise most consistently improved postural measures; soft-tissue interventions were mainly associated with pain, range-of-motion and functional outcomes. Respiratory-function and quality-of-life evidence was less frequent and heterogeneous.

Conclusion: Corrective exercise and soft-tissue release may improve selected postural or clinical outcomes in people described as having UCS, but the certainty of evidence is limited by small samples, inconsistent operational definitions, heterogeneous protocols and single-reviewer selection. Improvements in posture should not be interpreted as proof that postural correction caused reductions in pain or disability. The relative benefit of combining interventions remains uncertain.

Keywords: Upper crossed syndrome; Corrective exercise; Soft tissue release; Respiratory function; Quality of life.