Comparison of active stretching technique and static stretching technique on hamstring flexibility.

OBJECTIVES: To compare a passive and an active stretching technique to determine which one would produce and maintain the greatest gain in hamstring flexibility. To determine whether a passive or an active stretching technique results in a greater increase in hamstring flexibility and to compare whether the gains are maintained. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Institutional. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-five volunteer healthy subjects completed the enrollment questionnaire, 33 completed the required 75% of the treatment after 6 weeks, and 22 were assessed 4 weeks after the training interruption. INTERVENTION: A 6-week stretching program with subjects divided into 2 groups with group 1 performing active stretching exercises and group 2 performing passive stretching exercises. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Range of motion (ROM) was measured after 3 and 6 weeks of training and again 4 weeks after the cessation of training and compared with the initial measurement. RESULTS: After 3 weeks of training, the mean gain in group 1 (active stretching) on performing the active knee extension range of motion (AKER) test was 5.7 degrees, whereas the mean gain in group 2 (passive stretching) was 3 degrees (P = .015). After 6 weeks of training, the mean gain in group 1 was 8.7 degrees , whereas the mean gain in group 2 was 5.3 degrees (P = .006). Twenty-two subjects were reassessed 4 weeks after the cessation of the training with the maintained gain of ROM in group 1 being 6.3 degrees , whereas the maintained gain in group 2 was 0.1 degrees (P = .003). CONCLUSIONS: Active stretching produced the greater gain in the AKER test, and the gain was almost completely maintained 4 weeks after the end of the training, which was not seen with the passive stretching group. Active stretching was more time efficient compared with the static stretching and needed a lower compliance to produce effects on flexibility.

Menopause-related blood pressure increase and its relationship to age and body mass index: the SIMONA epidemiological study.

BACKGROUND: Menopause is commonly associated with some blood pressure (BP) rise, but cross-sectional or longitudinal studies completed so far were often too small and were unable to indicate whether this BP increase is really dependent on menopause, or was caused by age or changes in body mass index (BMI). METHODS AND RESULTS: The SIMONA study (Study on Hypertension Prevalence in Menopause in the Italian population) was a large cross-sectional study on 18 326 women of age range 46-59 years, consecutively seen by 302 practitioners all over Italy, and representing 60% of the women of that age in the National Health care list of those doctors. BP was measured three times in the seated position by the same automatic machine, and demographic and clinical data were taken. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were slightly but significantly higher in postmenopausal than premenopausal and perimenopausal women, but so were age and BMI. Within seven biannual strata, differences in age and BMI were minimized, but SBP/DBP remained significantly higher (by 3.4/3.1 mmHg) in postmenopausal than in premenopausal subjects in the youngest stratum (46-47 years), and was also significantly higher in the stratum 48-49 years. The differences remained significant after the exclusion of 1809 women with surgical menopause or 695 women with cardiovascular disease. Even when the confounding effects of age, BMI, smoking and contraceptive or replacement therapies were excluded by analysis of covariance, menopause was significantly and positively associated with SBP and DBP (approximately 2 mmHg difference in the age range 46-49 years). CONCLUSION: Menopause is associated with a slightly but significantly higher BP, even after adjustment for age and BMI, as well as other confounding factors, but the association is evident only in the younger end of the age range related to menopause.