Static stretching time required to reduce iliacus muscle stiffness

Abstract

Static stretching (SS) is an effective intervention to reduce muscle stiffness and is also performed for the iliopsoas muscle. The iliopsoas muscle consists of the iliacus and psoas major muscles, among which the former has a greater physiological cross-sectional area and hip flexion moment arm. Static stretching time required to reduce muscle stiffness can differ among muscles, and the required time for the iliacus muscle remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the time required to reduce iliacus muscle stiffness. Twenty-six healthy men participated in this study. A 1-min hip extension SS was performed five times. Shear elastic modulus, an index of muscle stiffness, of the iliacus muscle was measured using ultrasonic shear wave elastography before SS and immediately after each SS. One-way repeated analysis of variance showed a statistical effect of time on the shear elastic modulus. A paired t-test with Holm adjustment revealed that the shear elastic moduli after 1–5 SS were statistically lower than that before SS. In addition, the shear elastic modulus after 5 SS was statistically lower than that after 1 SS. The results suggested that the stiffness of the iliacus muscle decreased with 1-min SS and further decreased with 5-min SS.