The effect of MET on antagonist motor tone

Item

Title
The effect of MET on antagonist motor tone
Author(s)
Staikov Cheryl
Abstract
AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate whether a muscle energy technique applied to an agonist induced a change in postural motor tone of its antagonist, as gauged by surface electromyography.
Twenty female volunteers from the student population at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine took part in this study. A same subject study design was used whereby each subject participated in a control and a treatment intervention procedure spaced two weeks apart.
The treatment intervention consisted of a post-isometric relaxation muscle energy technique applied to the sub-occipital muscles. The motor tone of the sternocleido-mastoid in seated posture was recorded using surface electromyography before and after the treatment. In each case, three measures of thirty seconds' duration were taken over a five-minute period and the means calculated to obtain pre-treatment and post-treatment values. The control procedure was identical to the intervention procedure except for the fact that rest was substituted for the muscle energy technique.
The matched pair data were analysed statistically using the t-test (paired two sample for means). The result was that the average difference between the pre-treatment and post-treatment measures was not significant (p>0.05). The null hypothesis was therefore accepted that muscle energy technique applied to the sub-occipitals has no significant effect on motor unit activity of the sternocleidomastoid as measured by surface electromyography.
The surface electromyography employed in this study had limitations in terms of validity and reliability and the results obtained were therefore considered only approximate. Hence no firm conclusions were drawn, but the study highlighted scope for follow-on research, particularly into the correlation between pain and motor tone, and the treatment effect of muscle energy technique with this regard.
Date Accepted
0
Date Submitted
1.1.1970 00:00:00
Type
osteo_thesis
Language
English
Submitted by:
62
Pub-Identifier
13606
Inst-Identifier
1076
Recommended
0
Item sets
Thesis

Staikov Cheryl, “The effect of MET on antagonist motor tone”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed May 4, 2025, https://www.osteopathic-research.org/s/orw/item/1151