The investigation of the effects of muscle stretching on the neural acute response has become a fairly attractive issue on current research when it is considered that strength performance is closely related to alterations on the levels of muscle activation. This study assessed the effects of 10 to 40 seconds of static stretching on the muscle activation as well as strength performance preceded by a repetition maximum test of trained subjects. 20 men, mean age of 21.75 (± 3.9), randomized in four groups according to the following stretching times: RT10s, RT20s, RT30s, RT40s - where RT corresponds to Resistance Training, were assessed. In the Control phase (C), the subjects were submitted to the repetition maximum test in the bench press with dumbbells exercise. In the Experimental Phase (E), they were submitted to static stretching with intensity of 10% of 1RM followed by the repetition maximum test. Muscle activation was assessed in the two phases with surface electromyography. One-way ANOVA was applied for statistical assessment, comparing anthropometric and functional characteristics of the groups, t test was used for paired samples, comparing control and experimental ones (p < 0.05). Results: Statistically significant differences have not been found (p > 0.05) in strength performance or levels of agonist activation when the different studied times and intensities in the (E) phase and the experiment with no stretching in the (C) phase were compared. Conclusion: Stretching exercise in the studied times and intensities does not seem to acutely affect the levels of activation in order to boost strength performance in a repetition maximum test. Therefore, different stretching intensities can be investigated with the aim to positively modulate these outcomes
static stretching; muscle activation; strength; performance
