Physiological effects of increased muscle stiffness : a systematic review

CONTEXT: In the last decades, with the emerging trend of physical activity there is an increased interest in various stretching techniques and modalities. But it has been shown that stretching could have deleterious effects on performance parameters and does not decrease muscle strain injury risks. Following this statement, reviewing the effects of muscle stiffness in order to know in which cases stretching would be beneficial or harmful could be interesting.OBJECTIVE/AIM: Assess the physiological effects of increased, passive and active, muscle stiffness on healthy adult humans.DESIGN: Systematic review, following PRISMA methodology. RESULTS & DISCUSSION: 6 cross-sectional studies were selected for the systematic review. However, they were not discussed because the devices do not or can not measure the stiffness of the muscle separately from the tendon. Therefore, the selected articles do not study muscle stiffness but musculotendinous stiffness and their results are of no more interest to this thesis. CONCLUSIONS: This thesis reveals a terminology confusion regarding muscle and musculotendinous stiffness. Future research is needed to address this nomenclature confusion and the validity and reliability of the current measuring methods. The design of a new device should be considered.Master [60] en kinésithérapie et réadaptation, Université catholique de Louvain, 201