Date of Award

1998

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Master of Physical Therapy (MPT)

Department

Physical Therapy

First Advisor

Renee Mabey

Keywords

Tendons -- physiology

Abstract

Stretching has long been an accepted method of enhancing one's performance in most athletic events. However, while there has been other research performed on the subject of stretching benefits, there has been very little research found in the area of muscle performance being positively affected by stretching. In this study, 19 male subjects between the ages of 18 and 25 with no previous knee pathology volunteered to have their knee flexion torque tested on a Kin-Com isokinetic dynamometer. They were tested once with prior hamstring stretching and once without prior hamstring stretching. There was no significant difference found between the two testing trials, but variability was very high, suggesting difficulties keeping the test controlled. Despite the results of this study, most literature agrees that stretching is important and that there needs to be more research performed to better understand the complete effects of stretching.

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