THE INFLUENCE OF THE HAMSTRING MYOFASCIAL RELEASE ON GROUND REACTION FORCE DURING GAIT

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the myofascial release on hamstring during gait in order to inform the clinical management of patients with muscular tightness of hamstring. Sixteen adult subjects with the muscle tightness of hamstring participated in this study. The peak of the vertical ground reaction force before treatment (1.114 body weight) in the stance phase is significantly higher than that (1.065 body weight) after treatment (P=0.007). The peak knee extension moment was significantly decreased across the intervention (0.48 vs. 0.33 Nm/kg, P = 0.019). The understanding of the efficacy of myofascial release on hamstring muscles is helpful to inform the clinical management of patients with muscular tightness of hamstring.