Previous research has shown that pre-training aerobic and strength status can influence on the training results, with untrained individuals presenting a more pronounced improvement. No study has investigated this correlation in a flexibility program so far. The purpose of this study was to observe the influence of the range of motion (ROM) limitation on ROM gain after a six-week shoulder external rotation stretching training. 30 volunteer physiotherapy students, with limited shoulder external rotation ROM were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control group (CG), experimental group 1 (EG1), with wider ROM limitation, and experimental group 2 (EG2), with narrower ROM limitation. Subjects in the experimental groups were submitted to a 6-week program of active shoulder external rotation stretching. One-way ANOVA showed a significant difference in mean external rotation ROM gains among all three groups (p = 0.001), with EG1 having the highest ROM increase (30.1 +/- 8.6 degrees), followed by EG2 (15.2 +/- 7.5 degrees) and CG (1.1 +/- 5.8 degrees). The Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant negative correlation between previous ROM and ROM improvement (r = -0.70, p = 0.001). The results of our study showed that shoulder external rotation ROM limitation influences ROM improvement after a six-week stretching program in a healthy young population. Subjects with more pronounced ROM limitation respond with a more remarkable ROM improvement.

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