Background: The calf muscles pump is the primary mechanism to return blood from the lower limbs to the heart. During exercise, the calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) contract and compress the intramuscular and deep veins. Calf muscles pump efficacy is dependent on the power of the moving ankle joint and flexibility of these muscles. Presence of gastrosoleus tightness may affect, alter the efficiency of this muscle in venous return thereby influencing heart rate. So this study aims to evaluate effect of gastrosoleus stretching on heart rate in normal individuals. Methods: 70 subjects participated in the study aged between 18-40 years. Heart rate was taken as an outcome measure which was recorded prior to and after calf muscle stretching. Subjects were divided into two groups with experimental group received passive stretching and control group received passive ankle movement.HR was measured with the help of pulse oxymeter. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 software. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the variable. Non parametric test was used to compare groups. Results: Mean age of participant in group I and II was 22.1±2.7years and 21.6±2.7 years respectively. In group I the mean heart rate of the participants at base line was 76.4±11.07 beats/min. Following stretching of the gastrosoleus, HR changed to 78.6±10.6 (mean ±SD) beats/min showing improvement in HR by 2.2beats/min. In group II the mean heart rate at base line was 76.0±10.9beats/min which was increased to 77.7±10.8beats/min. Conclusion: The present study concluded that gastrosoleus stretching was effective in improving heart rate in normal individual with tightness of the gastrosoleus. However, it was not statistically significant.
