Acute muscle stretching and the ability to maintain posture in females with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

BACKGROUND: Physiotherapy scoliosis specific exercises include exercises to attain and maintain proper posture, as well as flexibility movements such as stretching. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of prior muscle stretching on the performance of posture exercise in females with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). METHODS: Eighteen females with AIS were randomly assigned to perform a posture maintenance task for three minutes preceded by either stretching protocol (group A) or no-stretching (group B). A second session was carried out after three days, where the same procedure was repeated in a reverse order between groups. During each session, three outcomes were tested: the ability to complete the task, the ability to maintain postural body alignment, and the perceived effort. RESULTS: All participants completed the task in both sessions. Subjects' ability to preserve the required lower trunk alignment decreased following stretching compared to no-stretching. Lower-trunk angle changed toward flexion by 10a and 4.3a respectively, p= 0.032. There was no difference in perceived effort. CONCLUSIONS: Prior muscle stretching has a negative effect on the ability to preserve body positional alignment during posture exercise. The present findings should be considered by practitioners when designing protocols for scoliosis-specific exercises. Stretching immediately prior to posture maintenance exercises should be avoided.