Flexion relaxation of erector spinae response to spinal shrinkage

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of spinal shrinkage on the characteristic of flexion relaxation phenomenon in erector spinae muscle. Twelve male university students volunteered for this study. The spinal shrinkage was created with a load of 20% body weight on shoulder in 10 min. Each performed three trials of lumbar flexion-extension with the cycle of 5 s flexion and 5 s extension in standing before and after shrinkage. Surface electromyography from right erector spinae muscle as well as trunk flexion performance was recorded synchronously in video camera. A one-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to evaluate the effect of shrinkage. The results showed that there was a significant (p < 0.001) stature change with mean magnitude of shrinkage 5.9 mm. The erector spinae was active through a significantly larger angle during flexion and began activity significantly earlier during extension after shrinkage. It was concluded that shrinkage caused by prolonged compressive loading will elicit the change of flexion relaxation characteristic, which may be closely related to low back disorder.