ArticleBMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation2025
High hamstring stiffness and flexibility with comparable spinopelvic morphometry in amateur footballers: a multimodal study.
Article in BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Muscular profiles of adolescent female soccer players: a cross-sectional comparison of hamstring-to-quadriceps and vastus medialis-to-vastus lateralis characteristics.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFootball's repetitive lower-extremity biomechanics may drive functional adaptations in the hamstrings and spinopelvic alignment. We hypothesised that footballers would display greater hamstring stiffness and morphometric differences in SPPs, attributable to sport-specific loading, compared with non-athletes. This study therefore investigates the interrelationships among hamstring stiffness, flexibility, and spinopelvic alignment to clarify football-induced adaptations.
methodsThis cross-sectional study included 50 licensed amateur male football players (Group A; mean age 21.74 ± 2.91 years) and 50 healthy males with no licensed sports participation (Group B; mean age 23.14 ± 2.98 years). Measurements comprised radiographic assessment of SPPs, Shear-Wave elastography (SWE) to quantify hamstring muscle stiffness, and clinical flexibility tests (CFTs) which consist of the Active Knee Extension (AKE) test, the Straight Leg Raise (SLR) test, and the Sit-and-Reach (SR) test.
resultsNo significant differences were detected between the groups in SPPs. All hamstring SWE values (except for the left Biceps Femoris, p = 0.615) and all CFT values were significantly higher in Group A (p < 0.001), indicating the 'high stiffness/high flexibility' paradox. Within Group A, SPPs were not associated with either SWE values or CFT values (p > 0.05). Likewise, no correlations were found between SWE values and CFT values in either group (p > 0.05).
conclusionsFootballers exhibited higher hamstring stiffness yet showed no spinopelvic morphometric differences compared with non-athletes. The absence of SWE-CFT correlations suggests that these methods assess distinct physiological properties. The observed "high stiffness/high flexibility" paradox in footballers indicates sport-specific functional adaptations. Future longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the long-term effects of this phenomenon.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.