Evaluation of the quality of life and the flexibility of climacteric women after stretching – pilot study

Abstract

Objective: To verify the effect of muscular stretching in the quality of life and flexibility of climacteric women. Methods: Ten non-athletes women were selected, in the climacterium period with at least two climacteric symptoms in the last six months. The quality of life was evaluated by the Woman's Health Questionnaire and the flexibility by the fingertip-to-floor test. The participants accomplished active muscular stretching exercises for six weeks, three times a week and duration of 40 minutes each session. Results: There was a significant improvement of the flexibility after muscular stretching exercises (p=0.05). The domains of the quality of life that presented significant improvement after the muscular stretching exercises were memory and concentration (p=0.024) and the vasomotor symptoms (p=0.020). Conclusions: It can be suggested that muscular stretching exercises provided improvement of the flexibility and some domains of the quality of life, as memory and concentration and vasomotor symptoms.