Comparative Effects of Lower Body Quadrant Neural Mobilization and Stretching in Collegiate Football Players

Sports Physical Therapy Clinical Trial

Official title: Comparative Effects of Lower Body Quadrant Neural Mobilization and Stretching in Collegiate Football Players

Status Not yet recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

Neural mobilizations (NM) are defined as interventions that aim to directly or indirectly affect neural structures or surrounding tissue through manual techniques or exercise. Neural mobilizations have been studied in both patients and healthy populations. In the study, individuals in the amateur football team will be divided into three groups and will be given pre-training warm-up periods, including neural mobilization, dynamic and static stretching.After the warm-up period, its effect on flexibility and performance will be examined and compared.

Clinical Trial Description

Neural mobilization (NM) is an intervention aimed at directly or indirectly affecting neural structures or surrounding tissue through manual techniques or exercise, used to restore the normal mechanical and physiological responses of the nervous system to movement and posture. Neural mobilization consists of two different techniques or combinations of these, which provides gliding and tension. Gliding techniques involve simultaneous movements of at least two joints, so that the nerve is lengthened in one joint and shortened in the other. In contrast, tension techniques lengthen the nerves in both joints. Neural gliding results in greater nerve excursion, while neural tension results in higher inner nerve pressure. It has been suggested that neural mobilization may induce a series of complex neurophysiological changes that facilitate its function by increasing nerve flexibility and improve symptoms such as improvement in nerve mobility, increase in intraneural fluid dispersion and pain by providing changes in the viscoelastic properties of the nerve. However, the underlying mechanisms associated with clinical improvements following neural mobilization remain unclear.

The peripheral nervous system tolerates and adapts to different force combinations in daily activity and sports. The reason of these adaptations can be the gliding ability of the peripheral nervous system relative to adjacent connective tissue structures and the sliding of the internal fascicles towards each other. Decreased gliding ability of the peripheral nerve may affect function by causing increased stress on the nerve and local ischemic lesions.

Neural mobilization is known to be effective in improving lower extremity function and flexibility. The flexibility of the lower extremities, especially the hamstring muscles, is important in increasing functionality and reducing the risk of injury in football players. Neurodynamics is used as an effective technique in increasing the flexibility of the hamstring muscles and reducing neural mechanosensitivity. Active involvement in warm-up periods can affect muscle strength and power, athletic performance, muscle adaptation and injury risk.

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of static stretching, dynamic stretching and neural mobilization techniques used in the warm-up periods before training in collegiate football players on flexibility and performance and to compare the effects of these techniques with each other.

Participants will be recruited from collegiate male soccer teams and they will be divided into three groups: neural mobilization, dynamic stretching and static stretching group. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Sports Physical Therapy
• Stretch

• NCT number: NCT06298851
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Istanbul Medipol University Hospital
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: March 8, 2024
• Completion date: March 31, 2024