TO ANALYZE THE IMPACT OF PECTORALIS MINOR LENGTH ON PAIN AND FUNCTIONAL DISABILITY AMONG THE ELITE SWIMMERS

BACKGROUND: Competitive swimmers are more prone to shoulder revolutionary movements. As a result of overuse by these movements the anterior musculature of Glenohumeral joint will go for hypertrophy. Pectoralis minor is one among the common muscle that goes for tightness which causes abnormal scapular kinematics and shoulder pain which is a leading cause for functional disability. This may lead to affected performance of elite swimmers. AIM: The aim of the study is to correlate the relationship of Pectoralis minor tightness on shoulder pain and functional disability among the elite swimmers in Chennai. METHODS: The study included 32 elite swimmers from Chennai who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The tape measure was done for the Pectoralis minor muscle length for each swimmer and the pain was measured using numerical pain rating scale and functional disability was measured using Shoulder pain and disability index. RESULTS: The results were analysed using non – parametric tests, the Mann Whitney U test and Spearman’s correlation. The mean and standard deviation for the shortened Pectoralis minor muscle right side for 17 subjects will be 40.51 and 10.001. The mean and standard deviation for the shortened Pectoralis minor muscle left side for 11 subjects will be 40.22 and 8.02. The correlation ‘ρ’ for the right-side tight Pectoralis minor value is -0.612 and left side will -0.641. The pain and functional disability have correlation showing the value ‘ρ’ 0.397 which is significant at the level < 0.01 CONCLUSION: The study concludes that there is significant correlation between Pectoralis minor tightness, pain and functional disability among the elite swimmers