International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access

Abstract

The Prevalence of Hamstring Tightness among the Male Athletes of University of Peradeniya in 2010, Sri Lanka

Ishanka Weerasekara, Iresha Kumari, Nilushika Weerarathna, Charith Withanage, Chamika Wanniarachchi, Yancy Mariyanayagam, Shyamala Vigneshwaran, Priyanthi Shivaraja and Hilary Suraweera

Muscle tightness is caused by a decrease in the ability of the muscle to deform, resulting in a decrease in the range of motion at the joint on which it acts. Tightness in hamstring muscles leads to hamstring injuries and hamstring injuries are the most common type of injury among athletes. These injuries are slow to recover, make high health expenditure and decrease the performance level of the athlete. The objectives of this study are to find the prevalence of the hamstring tightness among some categories of the sports and to find whether there is relationship of hamstring tightness with body height; femoral length; duration of warm-up and cool-down period.
Prevalence of hamstring tightness is present at significantly higher rates among athletes who are engaged in contact sport among other measured category of sports in the study. Within the confines of this study it was found that there is no significant association between hamstring tightness and body height, femoral length, duration of warmup and cool-down periods. Therefore precautions to prevent hamstring tightness should be a major concern of the athletes who are playing contact sport.