[Purpose] To examine how stretching, plyometric, and treadmill exercises influence the dynamic balance necessary for sports activities. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-two healthy subjects participated in this study. The subjects conducted stretching, plyometric exercises, and treadmill walking for set times over a period of three days. The subjects' dynamic balance was then measured. The measure...

BACKGROUND One reason for stretching before or after exercise is to reduce the risk of soreness after exercise.1 Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) typically arises within the fi rst day after exercise and peaks in intensity at around 48 h.2 This review is an update of a Cochrane review fi rst published in 2007.3 A large randomised trial (2377 participants) of both pre and postexercise stretc...

OBJECTIVE To examine whether the thickness of the sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) could be used as a prognostic factor for congenital muscular torticollis (CMT). METHOD This was a retrospective study conducted in a pediatric rehabilitation service at a tertiary medical center. Fifty-two children who met the following inclusion criteria were included: 1) children who were 3 month-old or young...

INTRODUCTION Exhaustive and/or unaccustomed exercise, mainly involving eccentric muscle actions, induces temporary muscle damage, evidenced by delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and decreased muscle function. Different strategies to recover from its signs and symptoms have been studied and, as a result, a significant number of articles on this issue have been published. OBJECTIVE To assess ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Exercise is recommended for every patient with Parkinson's disease (PD). The effectiveness of two different forms of exercise for PD, Tai Chi and combined stretching-strengthening exercise, was compared. METHODS Patients with mild-to-moderate PD were recruited to join either the combined stretching-strengthening exercise group (n=7), the Tai Chi group (n=9), or the cont...

BACKGROUND Patients with COPD present a major recruitment of the inspiratory muscles, predisposing to chest incoordination, increasing the degree of dyspnea and impairing their exercise capacity. Stretching techniques could decrease the respiratory muscle activity and improve their contractile capacity; however, the systemic effects of stretching remain unknown. OBJECTIVE The aim of this stud...

A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to assess the efficacy of static stretching as part of the warm-up for the prevention of exercise-related injuries. Computer-aided literature search for articles post-1990 and pre-January 2008 related to static stretching and injury prevention using MEDLINE, SPORT Discus, PubMed, and ScienceDirect databases. All relevant randomised clinical t...

The purpose of this study was to compare the acute effects of general, specific and combined warm-up (WU) on explosive performance. Healthy male (n = 10) subjects participated in six WU protocols in a crossover randomized study design. Protocols were: passive rest (PR; 15 min of passive rest), running (Run; 5 min of running at 70% of maximum heart rate), stretching (STR; 5 min of static stretch...

Stretching is a common activity used by athletes, older adults, rehabilitation patients, and anyone participating in a fitness program. While the benefits of stretching are known, controversy remains about the best type of stretching for a particular goal or outcome. The purpose of this clinical commentary is to discuss the current concepts of muscle stretching interventions and summarize the e...