Acute Effects of Static Stretching in Warm-up

Summary

In this study the investigators want to address acute effects of warm-up and static stretching on short-term muscular performance of football players. Static stretching exercises are often used in the first part of a training session or before a football match in order to increase sports performance and to decrease risk of injuries. Since there is a lot of scientific evidence that demonstrates static stretching can improve short-term muscle performance, the aim of researchers is to discover the size and the duration of negative effects and, additionally, whether these effects can be eliminated with activation exercises. Nineteen 14 years old football players will be included in a cross-over study design.

In the control condition the participants will perform 5 minutes of aerobic warm-up (stepping on the stair) and then 7 series of 20-seconds static stretching of quadriceps femoris, hamstrings, hip adductors and triceps surae.

Maximal power and jump height of the countermovement jump will be tested in between every series. Thus, parameters of countermovement jump will be monitored at the beginning, after warm-up, after each series of static stretching, 7.5 minutes after 7th static stretching series and 15 minutes after 7th static stretching series.

Parameters of dynamometry (relative maximal torque \[Nm/kgBM\] and rate of torque developement \[Nm/s/kgBM\] will be monitored at the beginning, after warm up, 7.5 minutes after last series of static stretching and 15 minutes after last series of static stretching.

Maximal range of motion will be monitored at the beginning, after warm up, during every series of static stretching, after last series of static stretching, 7.5 minutes after last series of static stretching and 15 minutes after last series of static stretching.

In the second condition (experimental) all the tasks are the same, the only difference is that the subjects must perform post-activation potentiation exercises after last series of static stretching.

We hypothesize that muscular performance will be impaired to a statistically significant level after 7th series of static stretching. Second hypothesis is that negative effects will not last longer than 15 minutes and the last hypothesis is that static stretching induced negative effects can be nullified with activation exercises.

Conditions

• Only Healthy Participants Are Included in the Study

Interventions

OTHER

Activation exercise

Two series of 4 activation exercise will be included in the intervention.

OTHER

7 series of static stretching

7 series of 4 20 seconds static stretches will be conducted.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• S2P, Science to Practice, Ltd.

  collaborator OTHER

• Motus Melior, Ltd.

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Primorska

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nejc Sarabon, PhD · University of Primorska, Faculty of Health Studies, Izola, Slovenia

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

15 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-07-22

Primary Completion

2017-07-23

Completion

2017-07-30

Countries

• Slovenia

Study Locations