[THE EFFECT OF A HAMSTRING STRECHING PROTOCOL ON HAMSTRING EXTENSIBIITY IN ADOLESCENT STUDENTS: INFLUENCE OF THE CLASS SESSION WEEKLY DISTRIBUTION].

INTRODUCTION

students who do hamstring stretching exercises, twice per week on alternate days, have showed significant increases on extensibility. Objetive: to compare the effects of a hamstring stretching program includes in the physical education classes in booth groups of adolescent, which had a different class session weekly distribution (non-consecutive sessions vs. consecutive sessions).

METHOD

fifty-eight adolescent students did a static-active stretching program on hamstring in the warm-up of both weekly physical education sessions for five weeks. The total duration of the stretching was five minutes. Students were divided in two groups: group A, with 30 students, had consecutive sessions (monday-tuesday), and the group B, with 29 students, had non-consecutive sessions (tuesday-friday). Hamstring extensibility was evaluated with the sit-and-reach test before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the intervention program.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

there was found a significant increase in the sit-and-reach score in the group A (+2,15 cm) (p = 0.003) and in the group B (+2,31 cm) (p < 0.001). No significant differences were found between groups in the pre-test and the post-test (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

the implementation of an intervention program for five weeks, twice sessions a week, induded increases on hamstring extensibility in students. The class session weekly distribution does not affect the results.