Immediate Effects of Myofascial Release Technique on Muscle Flexibility, Vertical Jump Height in Recreational Badminton Players

Abstract

Introduction: In the life of a normal human function or in doing activity of daily living muscular flexibility plays an important role. Flexibility is the ability of a joint or series of joints to move through an unrestricted, pain free range of motion. A limitation in the muscular flexibility leads to several musculoskeletal overuse injuries in players life and remarkably affect a person’s level of function. Myofascial Release (MFR) is a manual soft tissue technique that is frequently used in physical therapy for the flexibility purpose. Aim: To find out the immediate effects of MFR on muscle flexibility, vertical jump height in recreational badminton players. Materials and Methods: This was a case control study design with total of 60 recreational badminton players were recruited for the study during July 2018 to May 2019 for 10 months. All the subject was assigned into three groups as per the selected muscle like quadriceps, hamstring and calf muscle. Vertical jump height Knee flexion angle Popliteal Angle (PA) distance from the wall (Lunge test) was measured pre-intervention and post intervention. MFR technique was applied as an intervention. Paired sample t test was used to find out the immediate effect. Results: Quadriceps and hamstring play a significant effect in vertical jump height and the flexibility of the muscles increases after the administration of MFR. Vertical jump height for quadriceps group (p<0.029) showed extremely significant improvement. Flexibility of quadriceps (p<0.001), hamstring (p<0.001) and calf (p<0.001) also showed significant differences. Conclusion: The study concluded that MFR has immediate effect on increasing muscle flexibility and muscle power.