Previous research has shown that pre-training aerobic and strength status can influence on the training results, with untrained individuals presenting a more pronounced improvement. No study has investigated this correlation in a flexibility program so far. The purpose of this study was to observe the influence of the range of motion (ROM) limitation on ROM gain after a six-week shoulder external rotation stretching training. 30 volunteer physiotherapy students, with limited shoulder external rotation ROM were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control group (CG), experimental group 1 (EG1), with wider ROM limitation, and experimental group 2 (EG2), with narrower ROM limitation. Subjects in the experimental groups were submitted to a 6-week program of active shoulder external rotation stretching. One-way ANOVA showed a significant difference in mean external rotation ROM gains among all three groups (p=0.001), with EG1 having the highest ROM increase (30.1° ± 8.6°), followed by EG2 (15.2° ± 7.5°) and CG (1.1° ± 5.8°). The Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant negative correlation between previous ROM and ROM improvement (r= -0.70, p=0.001).The results of our study showed that shoulder external rotation ROM limitation influences ROM improvement after a six-week stretching program in a healthy young population. Subjects with more pronounced ROM limitation respond with a more remarkable ROM improvement.
muscle; rehabilitation; training
