Stretching has been widely used to increase the range of motion. We assessed the effects of a stretching program on muscletendon length, flexibility, torque, and activities of daily living of institutionalized older women. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were according to Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (> 13), Barthel Index (> 13) and Lysholm Scoring Scale (> 84). Seventeen 67 +/- 9-year-old elderly women from a nursing home were divided into 2 groups at random: the control group (CG, n = 9) participated in enjoyable cultural activities; the stretching group (SG, n = 8) performed active stretching of hamstrings, 4 bouts of 1 min each. Both groups were supervised three times per week over a period of 8 weeks. Peak torque was assessed by an isokinetic method. Both groups were evaluated by a photogrammetric method to assess muscle-tendon length of uni- and biarticular hip flexors and hamstring flexibility. All measurements were analyzed before and after 8 weeks by two-way ANOVA with the level of significance set at 5%. Hamstring flexibility increased by 30% in the SG group compared to pre-training (76.5 +/- 13.0degree versus 59.5 +/- 9.0degree, p = 0.0002) and by 9.2% compared to the CG group (76.5 +/- 13.0degree versus 64.0 +/- 12.0degree, p = 0.0018). Muscletendon lengths of hip biarticular flexor muscles (124 +/- 6.8degree versus 118.3 +/- 7.6degree, 5.0 +/- 7.0%, p = 0.031) and eccentric knee extensor peak torque were decreased in the CG group compared to pre-test values (-49.4 +/- 16.8 versus -60.5 +/- 18.9 Nm, -15.7 +/- 20%, p = 0.048). The stretching program was sufficient to increase hamstring flexibility and a lack of stretching can cause reduction of muscle performance.

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