Abstract

Introduction: Injury to hamstrings caused due to muscle tightness are common among athletes. In the presence of neural mechanosensitivity, muscle tightness may result from protective muscle contraction. Changes in the length and stiffness of muscle tendon units affect proprioception, which in turn affects balance. Interventions using neurodynamic sliding are thought to reduce neural mechanosensitivity, which is beneficial for increasing the flexibility and, in turn, balance. Hence, the purpose of the study was to find out the immediate effect of neurodynamic sliding technique on hamstring flexibility and static and dynamic balance among athletes.
Methodology: Present study was conducted as Pre-test - Post-test experimental study. 40 male athletes (n=20 cricketers, n=20 football players) from Delhi-NCR sports academies, aging between 18-30yrs (mean=21.35±3.83) having unilateral hamstring tightness participated in the study. Subjects were randomly allocated to any of the 2 groups: Group 1 – Neurodynamic sliding or Group 2 - Moist heat pack. Straight leg raise (SLR) and active knee extension (AKE) tests were used to assess hamstring flexibility and stork stand test (SST) and modified star excursion balance test (mSEBT) were used to assess static and dynamic balance respectively, at baseline and post intervention.
Results: No significant differences were found at baseline for demographics and any of the outcome measures. Significance level was set at 95%. Paired t-test for within group analysis revealed a significant improvement (p =.000) for SLR, AKE, SST and mSEBT scores in both the groups.  Independent t-test for between group comparisons revealed significant improvement for SLR (p=.003), AKE (p=.048.), SST (p=.046), mSEBT_AN (p=.013), mSEBT_PM (p=.005), mSEBT_PL (p=.011), mSEBT_NS_PM (p=.037) and mSEBT_CS (p=.047) whereas no significant improvement for was observed for mSEBT_NS_AN (p=.070) and mSEBT_NS_PL (p=.060)