## 3 Results
### Chronic Effects of Static Stretching  
This section reviews the chronic (multiple sessions of intervention over several weeks) effects of static stretching on neuromuscular properties from 19 recent studies [45; 46; 47; 71; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86]. The total number of participants across the 19 studies was 327 (median: 15; range: 5-28). Of the 19 studies, one study assessed both neural and muscular responses (\(n=12\)) [72], one study investigated neural responses [71], and 17 studies investigated muscular responses [45; 46; 47; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86]. The main findings are summarized in Table 2.  
Joint behavior responses were reported in 18 studies [45; 47; 71; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 80; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86]. ROM was reported in 16 studies [45; 47; 71; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86]; four studies examined two stretching methods in terms of stretching intensity [78; 84; 86] and the total number of sessions [79], and the raw values from one study [73] were not available. This led to the attainment of a total of 19 data points from 16 studies, and 17 of the 19 data points showed a significant increase. A meta-analysis revealed a significant overall large effect with low heterogeneity (\(d=0.94\); 95% CI = 0.73 to 1.15; \(p<0.001\); \(I^{2}=18\%\); Figure 5A). PRT was reported in seven studies [72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 78; 83], showing no significant change in all but three studies [47; 73; 83]. Of these studies, one study examined two stretching methods in terms of stretching intensity [78], and the raw values from one study [73] were not available, leading to a total of seven data points being available from six studies. A meta-analysis revealed no significant overall small effect with low to moderate heterogeneity (\(d=-0.19\); 95% CI = \(-0.57\) to 0.18; \(p=0.31\); \(I^{2}=43\%\); Figure 5B). PRT\({}_{\rm max}\) was reported in eight studies [72; 76; 78; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86], and three studies examined two stretching methods in terms of stretching intensity [78; 84; 86]. This led to the attainment of a total of 11 data points from the studies, and seven out of the 11 data points showed a significant increase. A meta-analysis revealed a significant overall moderate to large effect with low to moderate heterogeneity (\(d=0.71\); 95% CI = 0.39 to 1.02; \(p<0.001\); \(I^{2}=40\%\); Figure 5C). MVIT was reported in nine studies [45; 71; 72; 74; 80; 81; 82; 83; 84], showing no significant change in all but one study [81]. Of these studies, two studies examined two stretching methods in terms of stretching intensity [84] and the total number of sessions [80], leading to a total of 11 data points. A meta-analysis revealed no significant small effect with no heterogeneity (\(d=0.08\); 95% CI = \(-0.13\) to 0.30; \(p=0.44\); \(I^{2}=0\%\); Figure 5D). MTU stiffness was reported in five studies [45; 72; 74; 78; 82], showing no significance in all but one study [82]. Of these studies, one study examined two stretching methods in terms of stretching intensity [78], leading to a total of six data points. A meta-analysis revealed no significant low effect with no heterogeneity (\(d=-0.12\); 95% CI = \(-0.43\) to 0.20; \(p=0.47\); \(I^{2}=0\%\); Figure 5E). Neural responses were reported in two studies [71; 72] and demonstrated a significant decrease in the H-reflex amplitude in both the soleus and medial gastrocnemius. However, the raw values from one study [71] were not available; thus, a meta-analysis was not conducted. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline