Indian Journal of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy - An International Journal

Study Design: Experimental study design

Background: There is a lack of clinical research regarding effectiveness of various stretching techniques for pectoral muscle flexibility. To our knowledge there are no prospective, randomized studies in the literature investigating the effectiveness of different stretching techniques for pectoral muscle flexibility.

Purpose of the study: To compare the effectiveness of Static stretching and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular facilitation stretching for improving pectoral muscle flexibility.

Method: 30 subjects having forward shoulder posture and pectoral muscle tightness were randomly assigned to either static stretching group or PNF stretching group. Readings were taken for shoulder external rotation ROM and decrease in distance from C7 to anterior tip of acromion process on 1st day, 3rd week and last day of protocol i.e. 6th week.

Results: The results of the study revealed that Group B treatment protocol is better than group A in improving flexibility of pectoral muscle in terms of shoulder external rotation ROM and forward shoulder posture. There was a significant improvement in ROM score in group B in 3rd week (p<0.05) and in 6th week (p<0.05) as compared to that in group A. There was a significantly higher reduction in distance score in group B on 6th week (p<0.05) as compared to group A.

Conclusion: The results of the study indicated that PNF stretching will be more effective than static stretching for improving pectoral muscle flexibility in terms of shoulder external rotation range of motion and forward shoulder posture.