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The Acute Effect Of Pre-Exercise Static And Dynamic Stretching Of The Leg Flexors, Jocelyn Riordan

Summer Research

The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of pre-exercise static and dynamic stretching on peak torque of the knee extensors in female athletes and non-athletes. Thirty subjects (15 athletes and 15 non-athletes) completed three tests on an isokinetic dynamometer. After performing a randomly assigned pre-exercise stretching protocol (no stretching, static or dynamic) the subjects performed eight maximal, reciprocal knee extensions on an isokinetic dynamometer at three speeds (180, 120, 60˚/s) while measuring peak torque. No significant differences (p < .05) were found among the three stretching protocols for either the athletes or non-athletes. However, the results suggest that static stretching may cause a loss in overall peak torque in contrast to dynamic stretching in athletes.