COMPARISON OF NONBALLISTIC ACTIVE KNEE EXTENSION IN NEURAL SLUMP POSITION AND STATIC STRETCH TECHNIQUES ON HAMSTRING FLEXIBILITY

Nonballistic, active range of motion exercises have been advocated as more effective than static stretching for increasing range of motion, yet no published data exist to suppert this claim. This study compared the effect of nonballistic, repetitive active knee extension movement s performed in a neural slump sitting position with static stretching technique on hamstring flexibility Forty healthy, adult volunteer subj ects with limited right hamstring flexibility tie., minimum of 15 degr ees loss of active knee extension measured with femur held at 90 degre es of hip flexion) were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Grou p 1 (static stretch) performed a 30-second stretch twice daily. Group 2 (active stretch) performed 30 repetitions of active knee extension w hile sitting in a neural slump position twice daily. Group 3 served as a control. Hamstring flexibility was determined by an active knee ext ension test before and after 6 weeks of stretching. Goniometric measur ement of knee joint flexion angle was obtained from videotape recordin g of the active knee extension test. A 3 (group) x 2 (test) repeated m easures analysis of variance and subsequent Tukey post hoc testing rev ealed no significant difference in knee joint range of motion gains be tween the static ((X) over bar = 8.9 degrees) and active stretch ((X) over bar = 10.2 degrees). Both stretch groups' knee joint range of mot ion improved significantly (p < .05) more than the control group. We c onclude that 6 weeks of nonballistic, repetitive active knee extension s (30 repetitions, twice daily) performed in a neural slump sitting po sition improves hamstring flexibility in uninjured subjects, but is no different compared with static stretching (30 seconds, twice daily).