Abstract
Muscle stretching has been practiced by people for thousands of years. Its effectiveness is well-proven, but the diversity of the obtained results should prompt a search for causative factors. One of the possible explanations can be hormonal fluctuations, which occur during the menstrual cycle. To assess the influence of menstrual cycle on the efficiency of static stretching of hamstrings with special reference to changes in their length. A total of 534 young women were recruited for the study, but after applying the inclusion criteria, only 48 of them have been accepted. The inclusion criteria for the study comprised a reduced length of the hamstring muscles and a regular menstrual cycle. The whole study included a twofold examination of hamstring length before and after the stretching (3 × 45 s), performed by a physiotherapist. All the measurements were carried out 3 times in individual phases of the menstrual cycle. Statistically significant influence of static stretching upon the length of hamstring muscle was revealed. A change in the passive knee extension (PKE) test was 13.34% (standard deviation (SD) = 10.97), and in active knee extension (AKE) test it was 8.46% (SD = 9.26). Hamstrings length demonstrated no differences in various phases of the menstrual cycle. Static stretching is an effective tool for the improvement of the length of the hamstring muscle in young women. However, the effectiveness of stretching in healthy women is not influenced by the menstrual cycle phases.
Highlights
Muscle stretching has been practiced by people for thousands of years
Hamstrings length demonstrated no differences in various phases of the menstrual cycle
Static stretching is an effective tool for the improvement of the length of the hamstring muscle in young women
Summary
Muscle stretching has been practiced by people for thousands of years. Stretching in its various manifestations has been a part of human motor behavior for centuries. It was first mentioned in India about 5000 years ago, and after that in China around 2600 BCE.[1]. Initially used ballistic exercises were replaced in the 1960s by static stretching (SS), introduced as part of the warm-up.[2,3]. Static stretching is an effective form of increasing the length of the muscle, and the hamstrings (HAMS) area is most often used one for the therapeutic intervention. The length of the muscle is a measure resulting from the distance between its attachments. The most common indicator for the evaluation of the elongating capacity of a given muscle is the point of discomfort (POD) felt during stretching.[1,4]
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