An Acute Bout of Quadriceps Muscle Stretching has no Influence on Knee Joint Proprioception

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to determine if an acute bout of static stretching of the quadriceps muscle affects the sense of joint position, the threshold to detect passive movement, and the sense of force. Thirty young, healthy men (age : 22.1 ± 2.7 years) were randomly divided into two groups. The Stretching Group (n=15) underwent stretching of the dominant quadriceps muscle, which comprised ten passive stretches lasting 30 seconds each, while the Control Group (n=15) remained seated for the same length of time. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to establish intragroup differences over time, and an independent sample t-test was used to compare the dependent variables between groups at each moment. None of the measurements revealed any significant change between both groups in each assessment moment or between moments within groups (p>0.05). This study demonstrated that static quadriceps muscle stretching has no effect on the sense of knee joint position, threshold to detect passive movement, and force sense, suggesting that stretching does not have appreciable effect on the spindle firing characteristics and tendon organs activation.

Keywords: Intrafusal muscle fibres; extrafusal muscle fibres; force sense; kinaesthesia; sense of joint position.