The Immediate Effect of Muscle Energy Technique and Whole Body Vibration on Hamstring Muscle Flexibility and Stiffness in Healthy Young Females

Background. High prevalence of hamstring injury is attributable to the lack of efficient flexibility, and different methods are suggested for increasing its flexibility. Therefore, the present study investigated two methods in healthy young females, Muscle Energy Technique (MET) and Whole Body Vibration (WBV) on flexibility and Hamstring Muscle Stiffness. Materials and methods. Fifty-six young females were included in the sample with a mean age of 23.82 +/- 3.17 years and were randomly placed in one of two treatment groups. The participants were treated 3 times with the Post Isometric Relaxation technique in the MET group. In the WBV group, in three 30-second sets at 30 Hz and 2 mm amplitude, each participant was subjected to vibration. Active Knee Extension (AKE) and Modified Sit & Reach (Mod S & R) tests measured Hamstring flexibility, and the Stiffness evaluation was carried out using the Biodex system 3. Results. The evaluation results revealed a significant difference between pre-intetvendon and post-intervention (P =0.000) but there was no significant difference between the two treatment groups in terms of post-intervention test results (P > 0.000). Conclusions. The results showed that a single WBV and MET session increased flexibility and decreased the stiffness of the hamstring, but there was no substantial difference in the efficacy of these methods.