Short term effectiveness of neural sliders and neural tensioners as an adjunct to static stretching of hamstrings on knee extension angle in healthy individuals: A randomized controlled trial

• We compared the added effect of neural sliders and tensioners on static stretching.
• We used the reference standard outcome measure to assess hamstring flexibility.
• Addition of neural mobilization demonstrated better outcome over the control.
• Adding of neural sliders and tensioners demonstrated similar outcomes.

ObjectiveTo investigate the added benefit of nerve-biased interventions over static stretching in hamstring flexibility and to compare the effectiveness of two types of nerve-biased interventions over a week.DesignThree-arm assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial.SettingUniversity Laboratory.ParticipantsSixty healthy individuals (mean age = 22 ± 2.4 years) with reduced hamstring flexibility were randomized to three groups who received static stretching and neurodynamic sliders (NS-SS); static stretching with neurodynamic tensioner (NT-SS) and static stretching (SS) alone.Outcome measureKnee extension angle (KEA) in degrees.ResultsBaseline characteristics including demographic, anthropomorphic and KEA between groups were comparable. A significant interaction was observed between group (intervention) and time, [F (2,114) = 3.595; p = 0.031]. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons analyses revealed significant differences at post-intervention measurement time point between NS-SS and SS (mean difference: −6.8; 95%CI = −12, −1.5; p = 0.011) and NT-SS and SS (mean difference: −11.6; 95%CI = −16.7, −6.3; p < 0.001). However there was no significant difference between NS-SS and NT-SS groups (mean difference: 4.8; 95%CI = 0.4, 9.9; p = 0.074).ConclusionsNeural sliders and tensioners are both effective in increasing hamstring flexibility as an adjunct to static hamstring stretching when compared to static stretching alone. No neural mobilization technique proved to be superior over another.Clinical trial registration: This clinical trial is registered in Clinical Trials Registry- India (CTRI) with registration number CTRI/2012/05/002619.