Acute effects of stretching on muscle stiffness after a bout of exhaustive eccentric exercise

With the aim to analyze the influence of stretching on muscle stiffness after eccentric exercise, 30 young men (18-32 years old), were divided into three groups: STR, undergoing a stretching program (SP) of the dominant quadriceps muscle, ECC, undergoing exhaustive eccentric exercise, and ECC/STR, undergoing eccentric exercise, followed by SP. Muscle stiffness (MS) was assessed immediately before the respective programs, and 1 and 24 hours after, measuring the following parameters during Wartenberg pendulum test: angle and angular velocity of first knee flexion (FKF) and following oscillating extension, time of oscillating movements and final resting knee angle (FRKA). Despite the slight (2%) but significant increase of FRKA, all further parameters did not change over time in STR. MS in ECC was documented by the reduced range of motion (ROM) and the slower angular velocity. Reduction in FRKA (10%) was still present after 24 hours, while other variables tended to recover eventually. Similar reduction in FKF was observed for ECC/STR, but with significantly less impairment in the range of pendulum movement one hour after the exercise and in tendency still remained less impaired 24 hours after. The results suggest that SP conducted after exhaustive eccentric exercise alleviated reductions in ROM induced by exercise.