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Reasons Not to Stretch

well.blogs.nytimes.com

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Re: Reasons Not to Stretch

#21

Post by PlanetFunk »

cynicalkane wrote: post #14
guylhem wrote: post #2

It is nothing new, it was suspected for a while by many studies. Personally I do not practice stretching. It initially started as an experiment - as in "if I don't stretch I should get hurt ?", "ok I want to test this and see precisely how much!", ie to try to evaluate the marginal value of stretching. So far I have yet to see a negative consequence of not stretching (ie increased risk of injury, even if anecdotal ex…

Many exercises are simply not safe if your muscles are tight or you lack the flexibility to do them properly. Swimming, weight lifting, most sports come immediately to mind.

I'd say that not stretching and not warming up are two different things.

Re: Reasons Not to Stretch

#22

Post by PlanetFunk »

graeme wrote: post #15
guylhem wrote: post #2

It is nothing new, it was suspected for a while by many studies. Personally I do not practice stretching. It initially started as an experiment - as in "if I don't stretch I should get hurt ?", "ok I want to test this and see precisely how much!", ie to try to evaluate the marginal value of stretching. So far I have yet to see a negative consequence of not stretching (ie increased risk of injury, even if anecdotal ex…

What about stretching in between? Like you, I abandoned pre-workout and post workout stretching without any ill effect. I often stretch in between though, and have found it can be effective in relieving chronically tight muscles. For example, I had a 'permanently' tight hamstring that I fixed with 30 seconds of targeted stretching per day for about a month. I use it for either imbalances, or for soreness from weight-…

To add to drexel, foam rollers or rumble rollers are great. I've also got an orbital buffer I use on myself that, as funny as it sounds, works amazingly well.

Re: Reasons Not to Stretch

#24

Post by Iterated »

This is pretty old news. I remember being in high school 6 years ago and the coaches making us do dynamic stretches instead of static stretches. And high school coaches are notoriously ill-informed.

Re: Reasons Not to Stretch

#25

Post by guylhem »

graeme wrote: post #15
guylhem wrote: post #2

It is nothing new, it was suspected for a while by many studies. Personally I do not practice stretching. It initially started as an experiment - as in "if I don't stretch I should get hurt ?", "ok I want to test this and see precisely how much!", ie to try to evaluate the marginal value of stretching. So far I have yet to see a negative consequence of not stretching (ie increased risk of injury, even if anecdotal ex…

What about stretching in between? Like you, I abandoned pre-workout and post workout stretching without any ill effect. I often stretch in between though, and have found it can be effective in relieving chronically tight muscles. For example, I had a 'permanently' tight hamstring that I fixed with 30 seconds of targeted stretching per day for about a month. I use it for either imbalances, or for soreness from weight-…

Excellent remark : like you, I keep some minimal in-between stretching (and I pay much more attention to drinking sweet cold water or soda during effort)

I do that ministretch when I "hear" or "feel" cracks that just should not occur in a given position or movement. It's as if my ankle was trying to sing the me the song if its people :-)

Lately I have noticed I could also do without this last remnant of stretching if the movements could be scheduled to alternate opposite muscle groups, ie make each routine put load on muscles which generally oppose (bi/tri ceps) and concentrate your training on a different set each day,

Exemples: investe in the biceps in your training today, it passively stretches the triceps, the do the triceps etc. so that at the end on your training everything is stretched even if you did not do stretching.

It's not "real" stretching - just the idea that curls should go hand-to-hand with skull-crushers.

Re: Reasons Not to Stretch

#26

Post by moonboots »

I wish pubmed, a primary source for this article, were more usable. I feel troves of interesting studies go unnoticed because it's so difficult to find anything. As an example, I tried searching for 'stretching' in pubmed, and the first result is about mental activity in older adults.

Re: Reasons Not to Stretch

#28

Post by pjnewton »

benhamner wrote: post #3

Studies like this make you question how much of our folk knowledge and wisdom is false. I stretch before and after my daily runs under the assumption that this has been reducing my injury risk. From these results, I should stop wasting time on pre-run stretches. Hopefully we'll see more studies built by attempting to support or reject the folk wisdom we've assumed throughout our lives that haven't been subjected to r…

> I stretch before and after my daily runs under the assumption that this has been reducing my injury risk. From these results, I should stop wasting time on pre-run stretches.

Have you been injured? Have you seen and/or felt a decrease in fitness due to your stretching routine? If not, I wouldn't change much of what you are doing due to a blog post or this study...

The problem with all these studies is that those that are on the bleeding edge of Strength and Conditioning research are the coaches out in the gym working with athletes and soccer moms. Sadly, no matter how many lives these people change for the better, their methods are discounted due to the lack of scientific rigor.

I've been a strength and conditioning coach for 5 years now and I get very little value out of any of the articles and studies published by NSCA, despite their clout. I continue to pay my dues for access to the information.

You do have a great point though about how well trenched the conventional "wisdom" is in these areas and the large commercial influence that controls these studies through funding or not funding a program.

Re: Reasons Not to Stretch

#29

Post by thebear »

One caveat for those who are pushing the big 5-O (and trust me, sooner or later, you all will be): the title of the article should have been "Reasons Not to Stretch before Exercise." Stretching for the purpose of counteracting the loss of elasticity of the tendons that comes with age is a different matter. It's like "the other flossing": it's well-known that it should be done, but compliance is spotty.

Re: Reasons Not to Stretch

#30

Post by ajays »

The title is misleading, to say the least.

I occasionally suffer from lower back pain. From experience, tight hamstrings seem to be the cause. If I regularly stretch my hamstrings, I am without back problems. If I stop stretching, then, after a few months, I'll suddenly develop severe back pain. It's happened 3 times already, so I'm seeing a pattern.

So I guess my point is: stretching can help in other areas; it just may not help you improve one specific aspect of your performance. It can keep you injury-free.

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