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Effects of ipsilateral anterior thigh soft tissue stretching on passive unilateral straight-leg raise
S Clark1, A Christiansen, D F Hellman
1School of Physical Therapy, University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, Des Moines, Iowa 50312, USA.
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 prone positioning on passive unilateral straight-leg raise measurements.
Background:
Straight-leg raising has been viewed as a measurement for hamstring muscle length, but literature suggests that other structures may affect this measurement.
Methods And Measures:
Sixty subjects (45 men, 15 women) qualified for inclusion into the study based on a straight-leg raise measurement of < or = 65 degrees. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, static stretch, or sagittal plane hold-relax exercise. Pretest 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 the 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 hold-relax and passive prone positioning can significantly increase straight-leg raise range of motion, however the sagittal plane hold-relax stretching of the anterior thigh is more effective than passive prone positioning.