To Stretch or Not to Stretch

Through the years we’ve heard a lot about stretching.  Stretch before and after a workout. No, just stretch after. Stretching will help prevent injury. And, more recently, No, stretching doesn’t do anything at all.  After years of debate and a number of studies…the jury is still out.  
When I was in college, we were taught the importance of stretching. After a warm-up, you spend a few minutes stretching the major muscles groups you’ll be utilizing in your workout. This serves to “loosen up your muscles”, thereby decreasing your risk of injury, so you’re able to perform exercises to their full range of motion. Lightly stretching after your workout was to help prevent muscle cramping and to alleviate some of the soreness from the workout.  A main selling point for stretching is its ability to reduce the risk of injury; not only by prepping your muscles for the workout, but also by increasing your range of motion. A muscle with a greater flexibility can, obviously, cover a greater range of motion before it results in injury. 

In recent news, studies have come out rendering stretching ineffective and a waste of time. One specific study concluded that no difference was shown in injury rate between those who stretching and those who didn’t. The team of researchers conducting the study even told the Australian Army (the test subjects) to drop stretching from their routine. Several other studies have also been done that conclude stretching offers no affect on muscle soreness.

For all the negative press stretching has received lately, there are an equal amount of studies supporting its benefits. Stretching can help improve your flexibility and therefore, allow your body to move more freely through its natural range of motion, which, as mentioned above, can help reduce injury. Stretching can also help bring blood flow to the muscles, which is a good thing if you’re planning on using them.   

Although there is controversy over whether stretching is even effective, there is still a right way and a wrong way to go about doing it.  Stretching, when done correctly, may offer benefits, or  it may do nothing at all. There is no debate though, that stretching incorrectly is unsafe.

• Stretching and warming up are two separate exercise components, so treat them as such.  Before you begin your stretching, warm-up your muscles with about five minutes of gentle cardio.  Keep in mind, on colder days you’ll want to increase the length of the warm-up by a few minutes.

• Be still. I see people bouncing around as they stretch. Unless you want to damage and shorten the muscle, don’t do that. Hold each stretch for 15-20 seconds, and if you’ve got the time, repeat each stretch two or three times.

• Pain, no gain. You shouldn’t stretch to the point of pain, if you get to this point during a stretch you’ve pushed too far and need to back off.  You want to feel tension in the muscle, but you shouldn’t be grimacing.

Regardless of the varying information available about stretching, I continue to incorporate it into my exercise program. After a long run, my muscles feel better once I stretch. In addition, I add stretching components into each group exercise class I teach and I instruct one on one clients how to do so properly.