RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HAMSTRING LENGTH AND GLUTEUS MAXIMUS STRENGTH WITH AND WITHOUT NORMALIZATION

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

There are many studies that have shown a relationship with hamstring 'tightness' or a decreased hamstring range of motion, including sacroiliac joint and low back pain studies. Physiotherapists commonly see patients reporting 'tight' hamstring muscles. There is a widely held belief that the hamstrings become overactive to compensate for gluteus maximus (GM) weakness. However, to date, due to difficulties in reliable clinical testing of hip extension with a traditional handheld dynamometer, a clinical relationship had not been found between hamstring length and gluteus strength to support this common theory.

METHODS

In this study, they recruited 34 healthy male subjects with a mean age of 23.1 years from a University in the Republic of Korea. The subjects must not have had a lower extremity injury in the last 6 months, and had to have pain-free hip extension strength. Each subject was instructed to perform maximal isometric hip extension in a prone position with the knee flexed to 90 degrees for 5 seconds, and peak force was recorded. Measurement was done three times, with 2-minute breaks between trials.

Calculations we then perform to normalise for body weight and height. The force measurements we then compared to hamstring length measurements using the active knee extension method from 900 hip flexion in supine.

RESULTS

The main finding was that GM strength with normalization by body weight and height was significantly, positively correlated with hamstring length (r=0.62, p

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