Futsal is an upcoming popular sport in the industry, it is an active dynamic sport which requires the players to perform various movements like rapidly accelerating and decelerating, it also requires them to rapidly change their direction of movement, it also involves a lot of sliding and kicking. Compared to other athletic sports played worldwide, futsal is a rather vigorous sport with increased incidence of injuries. Tightness in the hamstring muscles can lead to various injuries. The prevalence of hamstring muscle injuries is very high in futsal players due to muscle tightness. This study aims to determine the effects of Muscle Energy Technique (MET) on hamstring flexibility among futsal players. After being screened as per the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the participants were given the chronic implication of MET where the technique was performed for seven to ten seconds with twenty percent of resistive effort synchronized with the breathing pattern of the participant and then stretched to the new muscle length, this was repeated until no further gain was possible. The hamstring length was assessed using the Active Knee Extension Test (AKET) before and after the intervention, the values were then compared. The result of the study had shown an improvement in the hamstring length following the intervention (16.50) to be statistically significant (P <0.01) when compared to the baseline findings (23.67). It has been concluded that MET can increase the hamstring flexibility among futsal players, thus it will be able to reduce the injury rate.Keywords: Hamstring Flexibility, Muscle Energy Technique, Hamstring tightness,Futsal Players, Active Knee Extension.
Comparative study between muscle energy technique and eccentric training in improving hamstring muscle flexibility and performance in male college athletes
