OBJECTIVE Despite long-standing social psychological research supporting the influence of injunctive norms (i.e., what is commonly approved or disapproved) on behavior, support for this influence on health behaviors is limited. We examined the utility of correcting misperceptions of injunctive norms for improving sun protection and whether changes in attitudes mediated the injunctive norm-inten...

Stretching is known to be an effective method for increasing range of motion. Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) is a stretching technique that is often associated with a partner. The goal of this study was to examine the changes in hip range of motion (ROM) and hip, back and shoulder flexibility (HBSF) after an intervention of self-administered PNF vs. traditional static stretchin...

Introduction. The proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) is a physiotherapeutic concept based on muscle and joint proprioceptive stimulation. Among its principles, the irradiation is the reaction of the distinct regional muscle contractions to the position of the application of the motions. Objective. To investigate the presence of irradiated dorsiflexion and plantar flexion and the ex...

The hemodynamic and metabolic responses to proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) exercise were examined in 32 male university students (aged 19-28 years). Ten repetitions of PNF exercises were applied to the subjects' dominant upper extremities in the following order: as an agonist pattern flexion, adduction and external rotation; and as an antagonist pattern extension, abduction and ...

This study examined the effect of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) coupled with an internal mental imagery technique (PNFI) on both the attainment and retention of increased range-of-movement (ROM) at the hip joint. Twenty-four young adult subjects were randomly allocated to PNF, PNFI, and control treatments administered in fifteen sessions over a three-week period. ROM was asses...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretches are widely used in athletics and rehabilitation. Although it has been shown that they produce better range-of-motion (ROM) increases than the slow or static stretch, the mechanisms responsible remain an enigma. This study was conducted to determine whether the previously proposed neurophysiological mechanisms of re...

Sheard, PW and Paine, TJ. Optimal contraction intensity during proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation for maximal increase of range of motion. J Strength Cond Res 24(X): 000–000, 2009—An informal review of literature on the use of postisometric relaxation (PIR) type proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) indicates that the force of contraction requested from the athlete ranges from ...