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Spine
Published in David A Lisle, Imaging for Students, 2012
Low back pain refers to back pain that does not extend below the iliac crests. Pain extending to the buttocks or legs is referred to as sciatica; this is a separate clinical problem to back pain and is considered in Section 9.6. Low back pain may be classified into acute or chronic, with the term ‘acute back pain’ usually referring to pain of less than 12 weeks’ duration. There are now well-developed evidence-based guidelines for the management and investigation of acute back pain from which a number of consistent recommendations can be identified. Primary among these is the need for diagnostic triage of patients into three major groups:Non-specific low back pain, acute or chronicSpecific low back painSciatica or radicular pain, with neurological findings such as positive straight leg raise test.
Flexibility training in preadolescent female athletes: Acute and long-term effects of intermittent and continuous static stretching
Published in Journal of Sports Sciences, 2018
Οlyvia Donti, Konstantina Papia, Argyris Toubekis, Anastasia Donti, William A. Sands, Gregory C. Bogdanis
The straight leg raise was the stretching movement used, and it was performed in the same individual in a continuous (90 s) and an intermittent manner (3 × 30 s with 30 s or rest in between). One leg always performed the intermittent static stretching protocol and the other the continuous stretching protocol. The assignment of the type of stretching on each leg was done in a random and counterbalanced order so that half of the subjects performed the intermittent protocol first and the other half performed the continuous protocol first. This assignment was maintained for the whole duration of the study. The straight leg raise test was chosen because it provides a valid and reliable assessment of the extensibility of the hamstring muscles (Heyward, 2005). Furthermore, gymnasts performed it regularly in their training sessions and were familiarised with this stretching modality. The straight leg raise was performed with the knee locked, from a supine position with the lower back flat on the floor to prevent pelvic rotation. Pulling of the leg was performed by the arms of the athletes through a non-elastic strap securely attached around the gymnasts’ ankle joints (Figure2). The stretch intensity was determined based on the feedback from the subjects to ensure that stretch achieved the point of discomfort (rating 90 to 100, indicated by the gymnast on a visual analogue scale of 0–100). Based on the same procedure used in prior investigations (Behm & Kibele, 2007) the gymnasts were informed that 0 represented “no stretch discomfort at all” and 100 represented “maximal stretch discomfort”. During training, the leg was kept firmly down on the ground by another gymnast, under the supervision of the coach, in order to ensure correct technical execution. During testing, the gymnasts’ coaches supervised the straight leg raise execution ensuring that both legs were straight and the gymnasts kept the appropriate body alignment. Stretching of both legs took 4 min (90 s for one leg and 3 × 30 s with 30 s of rest for the other leg) including recovery. The athletes of the control group continued their training without performing any stretching. During the time of stretching for the stretching group, the gymnasts of the control group performed postural control movements.