Study on Effectiveness of Static Stretching and Massage on Hamstring Flexibility in Normal Adults

Abstract

Introduction: Muscle tightness is the most common disorder in normal healthy individuals and insufficient range of motion caused by poor muscle flexibility may be a cause of muscle strain and increased risk of injury. Hamstring muscles are reported to be the most commonly injured multijoint muscle group in the body because strains are particularly common in multijoint muscles which have a greater functional excursion and tend to have a higher concentration of fast twitch muscle fibers .Tightness of hamstring muscle has shown to predispose a person to several musculoskeletal overuse injuries and significantly affects person level of function. To enhance from the health perspective it is typically necessary to engage muscle in systematic stretching and massage over a period of time. Purpose: To compare the effectiveness static stretching, musculotendinous massage and combination therapy on hamstring flexibility .Presently no documentation suggesting which one is better and whether any significant difference between stretching, massage and combination therapy. Methodology: Forty five subjects were included in the study .The subjects were randomly divided into three groups by using simple random sampling method .Group A received static stretching, Group B received massage and Group C received combination of both. Result: Related t-test was used and the value of t in stretching, massage and combined therapy group were 5.917, 6.948 and10.191 which were statically significant at the level of p<0.05. ANOVA indicated a significant interaction between the three groups and test in degrees of knee extension. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that that static stretching and massage both are equally effective to increase the hamstring flexibility but combined therapy exhibit significant improvement as compare to static stretching and massage group.