Article

Previous research has found that ankle joint equinus can lead to foot
pathologies. Calf stretching exercises are a common treatment prescription;
however, no dynamic quantitative data on its effectiveness is available.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of calf muscle stretching on ankle joint
dorsiflexion and subsequent changes within dynamic forefoot peak plantar
pressures (PPP), force and temporal parameters.
METHOD: Thirteen runners with
ankle joint equinus were required to perform calf muscle stretching twice a day
(morning and evening) on a Flexeramp. Measurements were collected on day 1, week
4 and week 8. A repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni-adjusted post hoc
comparisons was used to assess differences across the three data collection
sessions. RESULTS: Findings indicated that the calf stretching program increased
ankle joint dorsiflexion significantly (from 5 degrees to 16 degrees , p</=0.05).
The adaptive kinetics brought about by the increased ankle joint range of motion
included significantly increased forefoot PPP and maximum force during stance
phase but decreased time between heel contact and heel lift and total stance
phase time. CONCLUSION:
The calf stretching programme used in this study was
found to increase ankle joint dorsiflexion and hence can be used for first line
conservative management of ankle equinus.
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Langue : ANGLAIS