Immediate Effects of Bowen Technique Versus Dynamic Soft Tissue Mobilization on Hamstrings Tightness in Chronic Non-specific Low Back Pain.

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

• Ages 18 to 45 years
• All sexes
• No healthy volunteers
• Adult

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

About this study

Conditions

Hamstring Tightness

Being tested

Conventional therapy for hamstring tightness, Bowen Technique, Dynamic Soft Tissue Mobilization (DSTM):

Keywords

Low back pain

Medical subject headings

Low Back Pain

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

• Conventional therapy for hamstring tightnessProcedure or surgery

  Conventional Physical therapy will include TENS , hot pack , Hamstring self stretch , Calf self stretching , bridging exercise , piriformis stretch , prone on hands and prone on elbows.

• Bowen TechniqueProcedure or surgery

  Bowen Technique:

  1. The patient will assume a full prone-lying position on the plinth.
  2. Sequence of short gentle moves will be applied over hamstrings. Firstly, the thumbs will be placed on top of the hamstrings muscle and the tightness is assessed.
  3. Then, the muscle will be hooked by the thumbs from its lateral edge. Then, gentle pressure will be applied to the point of resistance to challenge the muscle in medial direction, as the thumbs will be flattened in medial direction, the muscle will pluck under the thumbs.
  4. First with the thumbs, then will be followed by the fingers. Often, the hands are placed with a distance of inch of space between the thumbs and fingers so that the hands performed the technique on the muscle easily.
  5. The whole procedure will be repeated again. The treatment time for each session will be 20 minutes for each side.

• Dynamic Soft Tissue Mobilization (DSTM):Procedure or surgery

  1. To access the hamstring muscle group, the subject will be asked to attain prone position and deep longitudinal strokes will be applied to the entire muscle group. Once the specific area of hamstring muscle tightness will be located, the remaining treatment will be limited to this target area.
  2. To execute the dynamic intervention, the subject will be requested to move in the supine position with the hip and knee flexed to 90 degree.
  3. Deep longitudinal strokes will be applied in a distal to proximal direction to the area of hamstring tightness and the leg will be passively moved to knee extension. Five strokes will be applied and 20 seconds of shaking is performed at the completion of this technique.
  4. This treatment will be given for 20 minutes on each side.

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

1. Active knee extension test

   active knee extension test, the participant will be in supine-lying position on the treatment bed. Then, participant will flex the hip to 90° while keeping the contralateral hip and knee extended on plinth. The goniometer's fulcrum will be placed on the lateral condyle of the femur at knee joint. The proximal arm of goniometer placed along with the long axis of femur, while moveable arm aligned in line with lateral malleolus. The subject will then extend the knee actively without any pain and tilting of pelvis.

   Measured: 4 weeks

2. Active straight leg raise (aSLR)

   The active straight leg raise will be conducted bilaterally three times, and best out of 3 attempts will be recorded. The classic straight leg raise is a complete active test. Each leg is tested individually. When performing the aSLR test, the patient is positioned in supine without a pillow under his/her head. The starting position is described with a distance of 20cm between feet. The patient must rise the leg 20cm from the starting position maintaining the knee in complete extension. The participant will be then asked to rate the difficulty of the task using a 6- point Likert scale. 6-point Likert scale (0= not difficult at all, 1 = minimally difficult, 2 = somewhat difficult, 3= fairly difficult, 4= very difficult, and 5= unable to perform). The test is considered positive when the subjective feeling of fatigue is >3.

   Measured: 4 weeks

3. The sit-and-reach (SR) tests

   The subjects sat on the flat surface with their head, back, and hips against a wall, knees straight, legs together, and soles of the feet positioned flat against Sit and Reach box. In keeping this position, the subject will be requested to extend the arms with palms down and lightly touch the index fingers together. The finger-to-box distance will be measured as the distance between the fingertips and the point at which the feet contacted to the box. Then, the subjects will be asked to bend forward slowly and reached as far forward as possible while keeping the knees extended and sliding their hands along a measuring scale placed on the box. Throughout the test, examiner will check to ensure that the heels remained at the box and that the knees are fully extended. The 0 cm mark of the measuring scale represent the position of the feet against the box, with larger values for better performance having higher flexibility.

   Measured: 4 weeks

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

1. First posted7 Jul 2023
2. Study start1 Jan 2023
3. Primary completion15 Jul 2023 (estimated)
4. Study completion1 Aug 2023 (estimated)

Resources

• Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
• Other trials for Hamstring TightnessStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
• More trials run by Foundation University IslamabadThe sponsor's other registered studies.
• What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.