Effects of ipsilateral anterior thigh soft tissue stretching on passive unilateral straight-leg raise

Study Design: Randomized 3-group pretest-posttest with blind assessment of outcome. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of sagittal plane hold-relax exercise applied to the ipsilateral anterior thigh, and p rone positioning on passive unilateral straight-leg raise measurements. Background: Straight-leg raising has been viewed as a measurement for hamst ring muscle length, but literature suggests that other structures may affec t this measurement. Methods and Measures: Sixty subjects (45 men, 15 women) qualified for inclu sion into the study based on a straight-leg raise measurement of less than or equal to 65 degrees. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three gro ups: control, static stretch, or sagittal plane hold-relax exercise. Pretes t and posttest straight-leg raise measurements of the right lower extremity were performed for each subject. Results: A 1-way ANOVA of the change scores showed a significant difference between groups. A Tukey post hoc analysis of the change scores showed that both treatment groups' means differed significantly from the control group and from each other, with the sagittal plane hold-relax group exhibiting t he largest change (mean of 7.8 degrees +/- 2.8 degrees). Conclusions: The results of this study show that sagittal plane hold-relax exercise and passive prone results of this study show that sagittal plane h old-relax and passive prone positioning can significantly increase straight -leg raise range of motion, however the sagittal plane hold-relax stretchin g of the anterior thigh is more effective than passive prone positioning.