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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Med.
Sec. Geriatric Medicine
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1451180
This article is part of the Research Topic Motor Interventions: Balance and Cognition in Older Individuals View all 3 articles

Acute and chronic effects of stretching on balance: a systematic review with multilevel meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Lars H. Lohmann Lars H. Lohmann 1*Astrid Zech Astrid Zech 1Gerit Plöschberger Gerit Plöschberger 2Manuel Oraže Manuel Oraže 3Daniel Jochum Daniel Jochum 4Konstantin Warneke Konstantin Warneke 5*
  • 1 Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
  • 2 University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria
  • 3 Pädagogische Hochschule Kärnten, Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria
  • 4 ETH Zürich, Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • 5 University of Graz, Graz, Styria, Austria

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Balance is a multifactorial construct with high relevance in, e.g., everyday life activities. Apart from sensorimotor control, muscle strength and size are positively linked with balance performance. While commonly trained for via resistance training, stretch training has emerged as a potential substitution in specific conditions. However, no review has investigated potential effects of stretching on balance, yet.Methods: PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus were searched with inception to February, 2024. Studies were included if they examined acute and/or chronic effects of any stretching type against passive and/or active controls on balance parameters -without any populationrelated restrictions concerning sex/gender, age, health status, activity level. Methodological quality was assessed using PEDro scale. Meta-analyses were performed if two or more studies reported on the same outcome. Certainty of evidence was determined based on GRADE criteria.Results: Eighteen acute and eleven chronic effect studies were included. Stretching studies exhibited significant improvements for sway parameters with eyes open against passive controls of moderate magnitude for chronic (ES: 0.63, p=0.047) and of small magnitude for acute studies (ES: 0.21, p=0.032). Most other subgroups against passive controls as well as actively-controlled comparisons resulted in trivial and/or non-significant effects.Even though some pooled effects slightly reached the level of significance, the overall results are biased by (very) low certainty of evidence (GRADE criteria downgrading for risk of bias, imprecision, publication bias). Moderators suggested by literature (strength, muscle size, flexibility, proprioception) were rarely assessed, which prevents conclusive final statements and calls for further, high quality evidence to clarify potential mechanisms behind, if any exist.

    Keywords: Stretching, Postural control, Center of pressure, sway, Y-Balance

    Received: 18 Jun 2024; Accepted: 19 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lohmann, Zech, Plöschberger, Oraže, Jochum and Warneke. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Lars H. Lohmann, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
    Konstantin Warneke, University of Graz, Graz, 8010, Styria, Austria

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