Stretching to the limit: Acute responses to static and dynamic preparation for technical leaps in youth rhythmic gymnasts

Abstract

Rhythmic gymnastics (RG) technical leaps require high jump height and extreme joint range of motion. This study compared RG technical leap performance immediately following static and dynamic stretching preparation. Seventeen well-trained female rhythmic gymnasts underwent 30-min of static or dynamic stretching interventions on separate days. Immediately following the stretching exercises, participants performed 4 RG technical leaps: split, split with back bend, stag, and stag with back bend. High-speed videos of their leaps were analysed for flight time, split angle and back bend angle (where applicable). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare between static and dynamic stretching. Results showed that flight time was unaffected by the stretching modality. Compared to static stretching, dynamic stretching resulted in 3 to 10° smaller split angles (all p < .005, large effect) in most leaps except the stag leap. Dynamic stretching also led to a smaller back bend angle by 7° during the split leap with back bend (p = .021, large effect) and by 10° during the stag leap with back bend (p = .001, large effect). In conclusion, static stretching may be more effective than dynamic stretching in an acute context in preparing youth rhythmic gymnasts for technical leaps requiring extreme joint range of motion. These findings should be interpreted with caution, as the greater flexibility may reflect increased exposure to end-range positions in the static stretching protocol rather than the stretching modality itself.