Changes in hip flexor passive compliance do not account for improvement in vertical jump performance after hip flexor static stretching.

Abstract

To date, there is limited research investigating stretching of antagonist muscles and its effects on agonist muscle function. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of pre-static stretching (pre-SS) of the hip flexor musculature on passive hip extension range of motion (ROM) and vertical jump height. Fifteen subjects reported to the laboratory on 4 separate days (D1, D2, D3, and D4). D1 was for familiarization, while on D2 to D4, subjects randomly completed 1 of 3 intervention conditions; no stretch (CON), hip flexor stretch (HFS), or hip extensor stretch (HES). Subject's pre- and post-intervention hip extension ROM were measured before performing 3 sets of pre- and post-maximal counter-movement vertical jumps. Vertical jump height was normalized to baseline for data analysis. A repeated-measures ANOVA with post hoc paired sample t-tests revealed a significant increase in vertical jump height in the HFS condition (1.74% ± 0.73; p ≤ 0.05) when compared with CON (-1.34% ± 0.96) or HES (-1.74% ± 0.65) conditions. There was also a significant increase in hip extension ROM after the HFS stretching protocol (6.5 ± 2.75%; p ≤ 0.05) when compared with the CON protocol (-1.73 ± 3.26); however, no significant difference when compared with the HES protocol (1.84 ± 2.79). A correlation analysis showed that the relative hip laxity of each subject had no effect on response to either condition nor did the magnitude of hip ROM change predict improvement in vertical jump. These results suggest that performing SS of the hip flexors may enhance vertical jump performance independent of changes in passive compliance of the hip flexor muscular tendon unit.