Acute muscle stretching and the ability to maintain posture in females with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Abstract

Physiotherapy scoliosis specific exercises include exercises to attain and maintain proper posture, as well as flexibility movements such as stretching. To examine the effect of prior muscle stretching on the performance of posture exercise in females with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Eighteen females with AIS were randomly assigned to perform a posture maintenance task for three minutes preceded by either stretching protocol (group A) or no-stretching (group B). A second session was carried out after three days, where the same procedure was repeated in a reverse order between groups. During each session, three outcomes were tested: the ability to complete the task, the ability to maintain postural body alignment, and the perceived effort. All participants completed the task in both sessions. Subjects' ability to preserve the required lower trunk alignment decreased following stretching compared to no-stretching. Lower-trunk angle changed toward flexion by 10∘ and 4.3∘ respectively, p= 0.032. There was no difference in perceived effort. Prior muscle stretching has a negative effect on the ability to preserve body positional alignment during posture exercise. The present findings should be considered by practitioners when designing protocols for scoliosis-specific exercises. Stretching immediately prior to posture maintenance exercises should be avoided.