Can apparent increases in muscle extensibility with regular stretch be explained by changes in tolerance to stretch?
One article on PainSci cites Folpp 2006: Quite a Stretch
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
The aim of this study was to determine whether an intensive stretch program increases muscle extensibility or subjects' tolerance to an uncomfortable stretch sensation. Twenty healthy able-bodied individuals with limited hamstring muscle extensibility were recruited. A within-subjects design was used whereby one leg of each subject was randomly allocated to the experimental condition and the other leg was allocated to the control condition. The hamstring muscles of each subject's experimental leg were stretched for 20 minutes each weekday for four weeks. Hamstring muscle extensibility (angle of hip flexion corresponding with a standardised torque) and stretch tolerance (angle of hip flexion corresponding with maximal torque tolerated) were assessed on both legs at the beginning and end of the study. The intervention did not increase the extensibility of the hamstring muscles (mean change in hip flexion was -1 degree, 95% CI -4 to 3 degrees) but did increase subjects' tolerance to an uncomfortable stretch sensation (mean change in hip flexion was 8 degrees, 95% CI 5 to 12 degrees). These results highlight the importance of distinguishing between real and apparent increases in muscle extensibility when assessing the effectiveness of stretch, and indicate that whilst a four-week stretch program increases subjects' tolerance to an uncomfortable stretch sensation it does not increase hamstring muscle extensibility.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- No long-term effects after a three-week open-label placebo treatment for chronic low back pain: a three-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Kleine-Borgmann 2022 Pain.
- Exercise and education versus saline injections for knee osteoarthritis: a randomised controlled equivalence trial. Bandak 2022 Ann Rheum Dis.
- Association of Lumbar MRI Findings with Current and Future Back Pain in a Population-based Cohort Study. Kasch 2022 Spine (Phila Pa 1976).
- A double-blinded randomised controlled study of the value of sequential intravenous and oral magnesium therapy in patients with chronic low back pain with a neuropathic component. Yousef 2013 Anaesthesia.
- Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Richards 2021 Phys Ther.