Hamstring Viscoelasticity and Low Back Pain

January 28, 2026 updated by: Onur Atakan Sekibağ, Istanbul Nisantasi University

Effect of Hamstring-targeted Physiotherapy on Low Back Pain and Muscle Viscoelastic Properties in Elite Adolescent Rowers: A Single-blind Randomized Controlled Trial

Low back pain (LBP) is a prevalent issue among adolescent rowers, particularly males aged 14 to 16 years, with a high lifetime prevalence (94%) and point prevalence (65%). One of the mechanisms of lower back pain in rowing athletes is about the elasticity, stiffness and tone of the hamstring muscle.

Current literature shows that stretching exercises, strengthening exercises and kinesiotaping affects hamstring viscoelasticity in various ways. Stretching exercises affect hamstring muscle tone and elasticity, strengthening exercises affect muscle stiffness and kinesiotaping affects muscle tone. While the effects of each of these interventions on viscoelastic properties individually are examined in the literature, studies comparing the effects of changes in viscoelastic properties caused by these interventions on low back pain, athletic disability index and athletic performance in rowers and their superiority among each other are lacking.

The goal of this study is to change the viscoelasticity of the hamstring muscles and examine its effect on low back pain, disability index and athletic performance.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Volunteer male elite rowing athletes between the ages of 14 and 18 who score 3/10 or higher on the Numeric Pain Rating Scale at the time of activity will be included in the study. Signed voluntary consent will be obtained from participants and their legal representatives. Participants will be divided into three groups. Study groups will be as follows: a) ballistic hamstring stretching exercise b) hamstring extender exercise c) kinesiotaping

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

60

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Turkey (Türkiye)
    • Maslak
      • Istanbul, Maslak, Turkey (Türkiye), 34398
        • Istanbul Nisantasi University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Being between ages 14 and 18 and male gender
  • Having been rowing at an elite level for at least one year with a professional team
  • Having pain 3/10 or higher on NPRS
  • Participating to the study in a voluntary basis.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Having limitation in lower extremity range of motion that limits completion of interventions
  • Having a musculoskeletal injury involving the lower extremity in the last 6 months.
  • Having undergone a operation in the last 6 months.
  • Failing to complete any of interventions.
  • Wanting to quit from study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Ballistic Stretching Exercise
Athletes will be asked to reach the floor by leaning over in the standing posture without knee flexion. When they feel the tension in hamstring muscle groups, athletes will be requested to make small rebounding motion at degrees between 3°-5° for half a minute.
Other: Ballistic Stretching Exercise
It will be applied 4 times per week for 12 weeks.
Active Comparator: Extender Exercise
Athletes will lie on his back. Then, athletes will be asked to do 90 degrees of knee and hip flexion at the same time. Finally, the athletes is expected to perform slow repetitive knee extension to the point of maximal possible extension. According to Askling et al. and Aspetar protocol, it will be applied 12 repetitions and 3 sets.
Other: Extender Exercise
It will be applied 4 times per week for 12 weeks.
Active Comparator: Kinesiotaping
Kinesio taping will be applied to the hamstring muscle in the direction of inhibition with a Y-shaped and 25% tension force.
Other: Kinesiotaping
It will be applied 4 times per week for 12 weeks.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Frequency of Biceps Femoris Muscle
Time Frame: change from baseline frequency at 12 weeks
The tones of muscle is described by frequency of muscle or oscillation frequency (Hz). It will be examined by the MyotonPro, Tallinn, Estonia.
change from baseline frequency at 12 weeks
Frequency of Semitendinosus Muscle
Time Frame: change from baseline frequency at 12 weeks
The tones of muscle is described by frequency of muscle or oscillation frequency (Hz). It will be examined by the MyotonPro, Tallinn, Estonia.
change from baseline frequency at 12 weeks
Stiffness of Biceps Femoris Muscle
Time Frame: change from baseline frequency at 12 weeks
Stiffness of muscle is described by reaction to contraction or forces from outside of tissue that may cause the original form to deteriorate. It will be examined by the MyotonPro, Tallinn, Estonia.
change from baseline frequency at 12 weeks
Stiffness of Semitendinosus Muscle
Time Frame: change from baseline frequency at 12 weeks
Stiffness of muscle is described by reaction to contraction or forces from outside of tissue that may cause the original form to deteriorate. It will be examined by the MyotonPro, Tallinn, Estonia.
change from baseline frequency at 12 weeks
Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS)
Time Frame: change from baseline pain at the time of activity at 12 weeks
The NPRS is a segmented numeric version of the visual analog scale (VAS) in which a respondent selects a whole number (0-10 integers) that best reflects the intensity of his/her pain. The 11-point numeric scale ranges from '0' representing one pain extreme (e.g. "no pain") to '10' representing the other pain extreme (e.g. "pain as bad as you can imagine" or "worst pain imaginable").
change from baseline pain at the time of activity at 12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Standing Long Jump Test (SLJT)
Time Frame: change from baseline performance level at 12 weeks
It is a horizontal jump test that measures anaerobic performance.
change from baseline performance level at 12 weeks
2K-rowing test
Time Frame: change from baseline performance time at 12 weeks
It is an ergometer test that measures 2,000 meter rowing time and power output as a gold standard.
change from baseline performance time at 12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Istanbul Nisantasi University

Collaborators

Yeditepe University
Istanbul University - Cerrahpasa

Investigators

  • Study Director: Onur Atakan Sekibağ, MSc, Istanbul Nisantasi University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 1, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 1, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

July 11, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 30, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 28, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • AtakanS

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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