Investigation into the effects of 6 weeks of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation and dynamic stretching techniques on select fitness measures of power athletes

This study investigated the effect of 6 weeks of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation and dynamic stretching techniques on select fitness measures of power athletes. To obtain data, the investigators had selected sixty (N=60) female power athletes of 18-23 years of age to act as subjects All the subjects were purposively assigned to Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) Stretching Group (n1 =20); Dynamic Stretching Group (n2=20) & Control Group (n3=20). All the subjects, after having been informed about the objective and protocol of the study, gave informed content and volunteered to participate in this study. An Analysis of Covariance was employed to determine the intra group differences among the three groups. When a significant difference among the groups was observed, a pair-wise comparison of the groups was done by using the LSD post-hoc test to identify direction and significant differences between the groups. To test the hypothesis, the level of significance was set at 0.05. The results revealed insignificant differences on the variable agility among power athletes of three groups. Significant differences were observed among power athletes of three groups on the balance, flexibility and muscular endurance (p≤0.05). Thus, when LSD Post-Hoc test was applied to study the direction and significance of differences between the paired adjusted final means for balance, flexibility and muscular endurance, the experimental groups were found to be significantly different when compared with the control group. It has been observed that dynamic stretching group had demonstrated significantly better on balance, flexibility and muscular endurance whereas PNF stretching group had demonstrated better on balance than control group though not significantly. However, PNF stretching group has demonstrated significantly better on flexibility than control. This study concludes that significant differences are observed in balance, flexibility and muscular endurance whereas insignificant differences are observed in agility with regard to power athletes