Effects of a Structured Sports Massage Program on Hamstring Flexibility Among Male University Football Athletes
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Hamstring flexibility,
Sports massage,
University football players
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WHKT Nimesh Weerasinghe
Pramesh Chathushka Thotawaththa
Abstract
Background: Hamstring tightness is a common issue among football players, increasing the risk of injury and reducing performance. Sports massage is frequently used to enhance flexibility, but limited evidence exists regarding its structured, longitudinal application in university-level athletes.
Aims: This study investigated the effect of a six-week structured sports massage program on hamstring flexibility among male university football players.
Methods: A two-group, pre-test–post-test quasi-experimental design was employed with 20 male football players from Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. Participants were allocated to a treatment group (n = 10; mean age = 22.7 ± 1.2 years; body mass = 66.4 ± 4.8 kg; height = 1.67 ± 0.04 m) or a control group (n = 10; mean age = 22.8 ± 1.3 years; body mass = 66.9 ± 5.1 kg; height = 1.68 ± 0.05 m). The treatment group received 15-minute effleurage-based sports massage sessions twice weekly for six weeks, while the control group continued regular football training without massage. Flexibility was assessed using seven measures: the Sit-and-Reach Test (SRT), left and right Active Knee Extension Tests (AKET), left and right Passive Knee Extension Tests (PKET), and left and right Straight-Leg Raise tests (SLR). Data were analyzed using 2 × 2 mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA), with Bonferroni-adjusted post-hoc comparisons.
Result: The treatment group demonstrated improvements across all seven flexibility measures, whereas the control group showed small declines in the reported mean scores. The original analysis reported significant Time × Group interactions for all outcomes (p < 0.001), with partial eta-squared values of 0.52–0.61. Reported within-group improvements in the treatment group ranged from 1.77° to 4.11° across the angular measures, while the SRT reportedly increased by 3.56 cm. The reported effect sizes were very large (Cohen’s d = 2.32–3.78). However, these inferential statistics and change scores require verification against the participant-level data and final descriptive tables before publication.
Conclusion: A six-week effleurage-based sports massage program was associated with improvements in hamstring flexibility among male university football players. Sports massage may be a useful supplementary strategy for flexibility management within football training programs. Further research with larger samples and longer follow-up periods is needed to establish the durability of these improvements and determine whether they translate into meaningful performance or injury-prevention benefits.
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Copyright (c) 2026 WHKT Nimesh Weerasinghe, Pramesh Chathushka Thotawaththa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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