TS Muthukumar

Department of Physiotherapy, Revathi Institute of Physiotherapy, India

*Corresponding Author: TS Muthukumar, Department of Physiotherapy, Revathi Institute of Physiotherapy, India.

Received: June 22, 2022; Published: November 04, 2022

Abstract

Background: The present study is to assess the flexibility of the hamstrings, rectus femoris, gastrocnemius and soleus muscles in long distance runners. Range of motion measurements of four movements, including hip flexion with knee extended, hip extension with knee flexed, ankle dorsiflexion with knee extension, and ankle dorsiflexion with knee flexed, were measured to determine muscle tightness.

Objective: To find out the muscle tightness among running and non-running groups and to compare between them. To identify the factors responsible for decreased flexibility among these groups.

Methodology: 20 runners and 20 non-runners volunteered for the study. Male participants are preferred for this study. The convenient sampling is done in this study. The minimum study period was 3-6 weeks. The study setting choosen was Tiruppur District Sports Council for the assessment of runners and also Revathi Para Medical College for the assessment of non-runners. The means were compared between runners and non-runners only on dominant leg.

Participants: 20 Runners 20 Nonrunners.

Outcome Measures: Runners and Non-runners were tested for flexibility to assess the tightness with standard goniometer and to compare them.

Results: The runners were found to have tight hamstrings, and soleus muscles than non-runners and also gastrocnemius.

Conclusions: The long-distance runners appear to have posterior muscle tightness in the lower extremity compared to non-runner.

Keywords: Flexibility; Running; Joint Motion

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Citation

Citation: TS Muthukumar. “Lower Extremity Muscular Flexibility in Long Distance Athletes”. Acta Scientific Orthopaedics 5.12 (2022): 26-31.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 TS Muthukumar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.