In this article, we will discuss hamstring stretching.
In another article, I discussed hamstring stretching, but the research I'm going to show you is based on a different method that has been used on wrestlers.
The study
The purpose of this study was to compare the short-term effects of sciatic nerve nerve sliding and nerve stretching exercises on hamstring muscle length and functional flexibility in wrestlers.
Seventy-four wrestlers were included as participants in the study.
The athletes were randomly divided into two groups
Neurosliding group
Neural stretching group
Hamstring flexibility and functional flexibility were assessed using the Active Knee Extension Limitation (AKEL) angle and the Sit and Reach (SR) test one day before and immediately after the neural mobilization exercise, respectively.
A three-way repeated measures analysis of variance was performed to examine the effects of type of mobilization, time, and gender on interest in the AKEL right leg, AKEL left leg, and SR tests.
AKEL right leg (F = 59.886, P = .001)
AKEL left leg (F = 31.896, P = 0.001)
For the SR test (F = 22.630 ), it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the pre-mobilization and post-mobilization outcome measures.
There is no statistically significant difference between males and females by these three measurements because the nerve sliding and nerve stretching exercises to the sciatic nerve of the wrestlers were effective in increasing flexibility and function of the hamstring and were not superior to each other.
What kind of stretching?
Neural Sliding
The starting limb position was with both hands on the back and feet positioned high enough so that they did not touch the ground.
In the first phase, athletes were asked to dorsiflex their ankles while extending their extremities and knees.
In the second phase, after waiting one second in the first phase, the athlete was asked to flex the neck in head and neck flexion, simultaneously flexing the knee and bringing the ankle into plantar flexion.
Care must be taken when flexing the thoracolumbar region.
One repetition was completed in a total of 2 seconds, and a total of 30 repetitions of the exercise were performed in sets of 60 seconds.
Nerve stretch
Begin in the same starting limb position as the neural sliding.
In the first phase, the athlete was asked to flex the neck while simultaneously extending the knee and dorsiflexing the ankle.
After holding for one second, the athlete was asked to return the neck and simultaneously flex the knee and return the ankle.
A total of 2 seconds was required to complete one repetition, and the exercise was performed in sets of 30 repetitions for 60 seconds.
Care must be taken when flexing the thoracolumbar region.
Balcı A, Ünüvar E, Akınoğlu B, Kocahan T. The effect of different neural mobilization exercises on hamstring flexibility and functional flexibility in wrestlers. wrestlers. J Exerc Rehabil. 2020;16(6):503-509. published 2020 Dec 28. doi:10.12965/jer.2040700.350
Summary
This study tested an unfamiliar method of approaching the nerves.
I don't know if this method is better than muscle stretching, but it might be good to know it as one of the methods.
One limitation of this study is that it is unclear if the program was able to approach the "nerves" because the intervention may have approached other soft tissues as well as the nerves.
