Efficacy of Hamstring Stretching According to the Neural or Muscle Tissue Involvement

Summary

Background: Muscle stretching is a technique widely used in the clinical practice of physiotherapy and in the field of sports. In the bibliography we find a multitude of stretches and procedures described, some of them being similar to neurodynamic tests, which could direct their effect to a neural and not a musculoskeletal structure. The structural differentiation manoeuvre has been shown to be able to discriminate the increase in tension on the nerve.

Objective: To evaluate the short-term efficacy on ischiosural muscle elongation of three modalities of ischiosural stretching according to neural or muscular involvement, in subjects without previous pathology.

Design: Cross sectional study. Methods: A randomised, blinded, assessor-blinded clinical trial was performed. According to the sample size calculation, a total of 35 subjects will be recruited from the International University of Catalonia. Each subject will undergo three hamstring stretching techniques on their dominant leg, Straight-leg-raise (SLR), Passive knee extension (PKE) and Maximun hip flexion (MHF) with an interval of one week on the dominant leg. Muscle elongation in each stretching modality will be assessed with the modified black saver sit and reach test and whether the technique generates a neural or musculoskeletal response when performing the structural differentiation manoeuvre.

Conditions

• Muscle Stretching

Interventions

OTHER

Straight-leg-raise (SLR)

The stretched lower limb was on a mobile support and the contralateral limb was stabilized with a belt on the bench. For the SLR, the knee was kept in full extension and then, hip flexion was performed until a marked resistance. All stretching modalities were applied until a marked resistance was felt by the physical therapist (end-feel) or until the point of maximal tolerance referred by subjects.The stretch lasted 30 seconds followed by 15 seconds rest period and the procedure was repeated 5 times. Each stretching was applied for 5 minutes

OTHER

Passive Knee extension test (PKE)

The stretched lower limb was on a mobile support and the contralateral limb was stabilized with a belt on the bench. For the PKE, the hip was kept in 90º flexion and then, knee extension was performed. All stretching modalities were applied until a marked resistance was felt by the physical therapist (end-feel) or until the point of maximal tolerance referred by subjects. The stretches lasted 30 seconds followed by 15 seconds rest period and the procedure was repeated 5 times. Each stretching was applied for 5 minutes

OTHER

Maximum hip flexion (MHF)

The stretched lower limb was on a mobile support and the contralateral limb was stabilized with a belt on the bench. For MHF, a maximal hip flexion was performed and then, knee extension was applied. All stretching modalities were applied until a marked resistance was felt by the physical therapist (end-feel) or until the point of maximal tolerance referred by subjects. The stretches lasted 30 seconds followed by 15 seconds rest period and the procedure was repeated 5 times. Each stretching was applied for 5 minutes

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Carlos L López de Celis, Dr · Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-12-11

Primary Completion

2021-01-11

Completion

2021-02-20

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations