Active Release Techniques®

Found this posted on facebook by Dr. Abelson
Fascia release

Dynamic soft tissue mobilisation increases hamstring
flexibility in healthy male subjects
D Hopper, S Deacon, S Das, A Jain, D Riddell, T Hall, K Briffa

Br J Sports Med 2005;39:594–598. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.2004.011981

Objectives:

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of dynamic soft tissue mobilisation (STM)
on hamstring flexibility in healthy male subjects.

Methods:

Forty five males volunteered to participate in a randomised, controlled single blind design study.
Volunteers were randomised to either control, classic STM, or dynamic STM intervention. The control
group was positioned prone for 5 min. The classic STM group received standard STM techniques
performed in a neutral prone position for 5 min. The dynamic STM group received all elements of classic
STM followed by distal to proximal longitudinal strokes performed during passive, active, and eccentric
loading of the hamstring. Only specific areas of tissue tightness were treated during the dynamic phase.
Hamstring flexibility was quantified as hip flexion angle (HFA) which was the difference between the total
range of straight leg raise and the range of pelvic rotation. Pre- and post-testing was conducted for the
subjects in each group. A one-way ANCOVA followed by pairwise post-hoc comparisons was used to
determine whether change in HFA differed between groups. The a level was set at 0.05.

Results:

Increase in hamstring flexibility was significantly greater in the dynamic STM group than either the
control or classic STM groups with mean (standard deviation) increase in degrees in the HFA measures of
4.7 (4.8), 20.04 (4.8), and 1.3 (3.8), respectively.

Conclusions:

Dynamic soft tissue mobilisation (STM) significantly increased hamstring flexibility in healthy
male subjects.

“Imaging the results with the precision of Active Release Techniques” NvdL