Acute effect of static and dynamic stretching on tone and elasticity of hamstring muscle and on vertical jump performance in track-and-field athletes

Th e aim of the study was to evaluate and compare acute eff ect of static and dynamic stretching exercise on hamstring muscles tone and jump per-formance in trained track-and-fi eld athletes. Twelve male track-and-fi eld elite athletes (mean age: 22.0±2.1 years) who trained speed and explosive power (sprint, jumps and decathlon) voluntarily joined in the study. Mus-cle tone and elasticity characteristics (frequency and logarithmic decre-ment, respectively) of hamstring muscles (biceps femoris and semiten-dinosus) were measured by Myoton PROdevice (Myoton Ltd, Estonia). Squat jump height was measured by telemetric system BTS G-studio (BTS S.p.A., Italy). All characteristics were measured before and aft er stretching exercise. Frequency of hamstring muscles did not diff er signifi cantly aft er static and dynamic stretching. Hamstring muscle’ decrement decreased by 2.9% (p<0.01) aft er static stretching. Jump height increase by 7.1% (p<0.01) aft er dynamic stretching and decrease by 5.2% (p<0.05) aft er static stretching was noted. Muscle tone and elasticity characteristics did not correlate with jump height. Th is study shows that dynamic stretching has a positive eff ect on explosive power in trained track-and-fi eld athletes and it is preferable to use static stretching aft er warm-up of these athletes.Keywords: dynamic stretching, static stretching, muscle tension, squat jumpActa Kinesiologiae Universitatis Tartuensis, 2014. Vol. 20, pp. 48–59http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/akut.2014.20.05