Comparison between Immediate Effects of MET and Passive Stretching Techniques on Hamstring Flexibility in Patients with Hamstring Tightness: An Experimental Study

Abstract

Background: Muscular flexibility is an important part of functioning of human being and hamstring
muscle is prominently found to be tight in human body. Hamstring muscle flexibility can be improved by
a variety of stretching method and other techniques, yet very little work has been done to compare muscle
energy technique (MET) and passive stretching techniques. The objective of our study was to compare the
immediate effectiveness of muscle energy technique (MET) and Passive stretching on hamstring flexibility
in individuals with hamstring tightness.
Method: 42 participants who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into two equal groups, Group
A – MET and Group B – Passive stretching. The range of motion (ROM) of knee extension was measured
before and after both the techniques by AKET using universal goniometer.
Results: There was a significant improvement in hamstring flexibility in both the groups following the
application of MET and Passive stretching.
Conclusion: From the present study we can conclude that both MET and passive stretching techniques have
an immediate effect on reducing hamstring muscle tightness. From the mean difference values it is visible
that MET (12.81) is slightly more effective than passive stretching (6.38) although statistically significant
difference is not seen.