The Effect of Stretching of Swimming-related Muscles on 800-meter Swimming Performance in Master Swimmers.

October 19, 2023 updated by: Yeditepe University

The Effect of Stretching The Pectoralis Major, Sternocleidomastoid, and Iliopsoas Muscles on 800 Meters Swimming Performance in Master Swimmers

The study aimed to investigate the effect of stretching the sternocleidomastoid, pectoralis major and iliopsoas muscles on 800 meters freestyle swimming performance in master swimmers.

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The benefits of swimming are almost endless. Swimming is important not only as a sport but also for evaluating leisure time, building strength, and recuperating. It even allows some muscles to grow symmetrically and consistently. There is no malfunctioning muscle group in swimming. Even when swimming with minimal effort, one can move with relatively little force and easily. Besides this, it establishes a sense of trust.

Sportive swimming is described as the athlete's ability to complete specific distances in water in the quickest amount of time using freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly strokes. The backstroke technique is performed in supine posture, while the other techniques are swum in facedown, horizontal, and near-horizontal positions. Variable approaches have varied characteristics in terms of body position, leg kick, arm pulling, head position, respiration, and condition.

Biomechanically, our myofascial connections also helps swimmers while they swim. Tightening Superficial Front Line (SFL) causes flexion of the hips and trunk in motion also produces hyperextension at the top of the neck. The large muscles of the pectoralis and latissimus provide the motive force for the large movements of adduction and extension, such as a swimming stroke. Vertical fibers in the fascia on the profound side of the epimysium of the pectoralis major, which does indeed connect from the rectus attachment to the lower part of the fascia colli superficialis (and sternocleidomastoid (SCM)). Lower extremity also coordinates stability while upper part of the body initiates movements between phases İliopsoas starts the hip flexion and is followed up by the rectus femoris initiates knee extension to continue horizontal movement in the water.

Because of the demands of the sport, swimmers have a more rounded forward posture. When the head is forward, the cervical spine is hyperextended, the thoracic spine is in slight flexion, and the lumbar spine is in slight extension, this is known as forward posture. Muscle imbalances in the shoulders are to blame for this forward posture. In the recovery phase of swimming, the scapula must retract and protract along the thoracic wall. The subacromial space reduces with protraction because of the swimmer's adaptation due to sport. Stretching the scapular protractors such as the pectoralis major muscle has been shown to have a considerable impact on the degree of forwarding shoulder posture (FSP) in healthy people. Besides this adaptation also, swimmers with shoulder pain because of more active trigger points can lead to the development of mechanical hypersensitivity compared to ones that do not have any shoulder pain.

As summarized above, swimming athletes generally have a forward posture due to their adaptation to water. In our opinion, this posture may be due to the tension of the anterior group myofascial structures, and releasing the fascia by stretching might affect swimmers' performance. Master swimmers have that adaptation far more compared to young swimmers. Therefore, we can better observe the effects of Sternocleidomastoid, Pectoralis major, and İliopsoas muscle stretching on swimming performance by testing swimmers at distances such as 800 meters.

H0: There is no significant difference between the 800-meter performance measurements of the people in the group that added stretching of specific muscles to their normal training and those in the group that did not add stretching.

H1: There is a significant difference in the 800-meter performance measurements of the group with specific muscle stretching added to their normal training and the people in the group without stretching.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

30

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
    • Ataşehir/İstanbul
      • Istanbul, Ataşehir/İstanbul, Turkey, 34755
        • Yeditepe 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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants in the study voluntarily,
  • Participants in ages over 25 years of age,
  • Participants must swim at least two days a week.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Presence of chronic disease,
  • Participants have undergone surgery in relevant regions in the last 2 years,
  • Participants have had injuries in the relevant regions in the last 2 years.

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
Experimental: The Study Group
800-meter swimming performance tests were administered to all swimmers prior to the measurement. The study group started to do stretch exercises every day for 6 weeks. At the end of six weeks, performance tests and myoton measurements were administered and analyzed for both groups.
Other: Stretching

Master swimmers will be taught iliopsoas, sternocleidomastoid and pectoralis major stretching exercises as stretching exercises. Participants will stretch daily for 3 repetitions, each stretching for 20 seconds.

Participants will continue their swimming training 2 days a week.

Other: Training
Participants continued their swimming training 2 days a week.
Active Comparator: The Control Group
800-meter swimming performance tests were administered to all swimmers prior to the measurement. The control group just continued their regular training for 6 weeks. At the end of six weeks, performance tests and myoton measurements were administered and analyzed for both groups.
Other: Training
Participants continued their swimming training 2 days a week.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
800 Meter Degree test
Time Frame: 6 weeks
The 800 meter test will be used to evaluate the long-term aerobic metabolic performance of master swimmers.
6 weeks
The MyotonPro - Frequency
Time Frame: 6 weeks
The tone of muscle is described by frequency of muscle or oscillation frequency (Hz). It evaluates the tone that the muscle is at resting position.
6 weeks
The MyotonPro - Stiffness
Time Frame: 6 weeks
Stiffness is biomechanical feature of a muscle. It is described by reaction to contraction or forces from outside of tissue that may cause the original form to deteriorate.
6 weeks
The MyotonPro - Decrement
Time Frame: 6 weeks
The elasticity of a muscle is described by a logarithmic reduction of tissue's normal amplitude. It is more related with the dissipation of mechanical energy that arises between the deformation of the tissue and its recovery. It is a biomechanical feature of tissue that is called as elasticity. When the tissue's decrement is increase, elasticity decreases. There is an opposite proportion among themselves.
6 weeks
The MyotonPro - Relaxation
Time Frame: 6 weeks
It is the time which is called as Mechanical Stress Relaxation Time (ms) between the deformation of the normal shape of the tissue and its return to its original shape.
6 weeks
The MyotonPro - Creep
Time Frame: 6 weeks
It is defined as ratio of deterioration and relaxation time of tissue. In case of a continuous stress, tissue regularly stretches over time. This is called as creep.
6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Yeditepe University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Şafak Özsönmez, Yeditepe 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 5, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 20, 2023

Study Completion (Estimated)

November 20, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 5, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 14, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

August 15, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 23, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 19, 2023

Last Verified

September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SYeditepe

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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