Wg. Webright et al., COMPARISON OF NONBALLISTIC ACTIVE KNEE EXTENSION IN NEURAL SLUMP POSITION AND STATIC STRETCH TECHNIQUES ON HAMSTRING FLEXIBILITY, The Journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapy, 26(1), 1997, pp. 7-13
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).