Immediate Effects of Short Duration Strengthening Exercise on Muscle Strength and Balance Following Static Stretching

Background: The benefits of stretching include improving physical performance, preventing injury, reducing muscle soreness, and increasing flexibility. As previous literature shows that muscular strength decreases immediately following static stretching (SS), it is therefore recommended to engage in extra physical activity when using SS as a warm-up technique. Aims: This study aimed to examine the immediate effects of strengthening exercise on muscle strength and balance following static stretching. Methods: 32 male team sports athletes participated in this experimental study where muscle strength (peak torque/body weight) and dynamic balance of dominant leg were measured after warm up (baseline), immediately just after stretching (post stretching) and immediately after strengthening exercises (post strengthening). Muscular strength and dynamic balance among all three periods (baseline, post stretching and post strengthening) were compared. Result- Muscle strength and dynamic balance both significantly reduced after static stretching compared to respective baseline values. Short duration strengthening recovered the reduced strength and balance significantly from the post stretching level. Conclusion: The present study concluded that the short duration strengthening exercise after SS immediately improves the reduced muscle strength and dynamic balance.