Potential subjects will sign an informed consent and be evaluated for inclusion in the study. Subjects meeting the inclusion criteria will be asked to complete a form asking questions regarding their demographics, pain history and symptomatology. The form will also include a numeric pain rating scale to determine pain severity, and a standardized questionnaire commonly used in back pain research (i.e., the Modified Oswestry Disability Index). Subjects will then be evaluated for SLR range of motion on the side with the least amount of SLR range of motion using a bubble inclinometer.
Subjects will then be randomly assigned to receive a treatment to address hamstring length or a treatment to address sciatic nerve restrictions. A second researcher who is blinded to the results of the data obtained pre-treatment will administer the treatment. Hamstring stretching will consist of positioning the subject's hip in flexion and knee in extension, and holding this position for 30 seconds. This treatment will be repeated 5 times. Nerve mobilization will consist of either momentarily positioning the hip in flexion, the knee in extension and the ankle in dorsiflexion, and then moving the ankle in and out of dorsiflexion at a rate of about 1 - 2 movements per second (theoretically, this should stretch the nerve), or moving the lower leg such that it is first positioned into hip extension and ankle dorsiflexion, and then into hip flexion and ankle plantarflexion (theoretically, this should glide the nerve in its sheath). The choice of technique will be made by the treating therapist. Both treatments should take approximately 4 minutes to complete.
Following this intervention, subjects will be re-evaluated for SLR range of motion using a bubble inclinometer by the same researcher who collected the pre-treatment data. During the next visit to physical therapy, this researcher will re-evaluate subjects SLR range of motion, as previously described; and pain, by the numeric pain rating scale.
