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What You Should Know About Stretching
It is generally accepted that increasing the flexibility of our muscles promotes better performance and decreases injuries
Over the past 30 years sports professionals have promoted stretching as a way to decrease the chance of injury, relieve pain associated with stiff or tight muscles, and improve sport performance. Despite the claims, new research has challenged some of these widely held concepts. Certainly, most of us can think of someone who is quite inflexible, who never seems to get injured, or someone who is very flexible yet seems to always have an injury.
Stretching exercises are regularly included in warm-up and cool down exercises, with the notion that decreased muscle stiffness allows for increased joint range of motion. Although there is an inclination to assume this would mean an increase in performance, this assumption does not hold true. A number of recent journal of strength and conditioning research studies using athletes in several sports suggest that pre-event static stretching may actually negatively impact the performance of maximal muscle strength, power, and in one study even balance and reaction time.
The research also suggests that stretching immediately before exercise does not prevent overuse or acute injuries (1). The scientific basis of stretching is that it increases the compliance of the muscle tissue for a short period of time. Unfortunately, increased compliance decreases the ability of the tissue to absorb energy and can potentially increase the chance of injury. I would also add that it is not beneficial to increase the range of motion beyond that needed for sport-specific movements, as this may too cause injury.
Stretching before or after exercising does not offer protection from muscle soreness caused by your work out. That may leave you wondering, why then you feel better after stretching? Again, the research suggests that stretching provides an increase in "stretch tolerance" whereby you feel less pain for the same force applied to a muscle. Increased stretch tolerance occurs immediately after stretching a muscle and is caused by a poorly understood analgesic effect (1,2).
Despite the shortcomings stretching still decreases pain, and may provide benefits if used under appropriate conditions. Inherently, we can all agree that stretching feels good, the problem remains on how to choose the appropriate stretching protocol.
The evidence appears to indicate that stretching increases range of a motion with a variety of different techniques, positions and durations. Static stretching may increase some muscle length for up to 24 hours, however the gains are the greatest immediately after the stretch and decline within 15 minutes (3). It is also interesting to note that both heat or ice and a warm-up, when combined with stretching increase flexibility more so than static stretching alone.
Longer hold times and more frequent stretching may increase or sustain the range of motion further; however, a review of the current literature suggests that static stretching of one repetition for 30 seconds, three days per week for six weeks is sufficient to improve flexibility (1,2). Unfortunately, as is often the case, there is no retention of range of motion four weeks after ceasing a stretching program.
Still, health and fitness professionals need to be cognizant of individual needs, as some muscles require more time or more stretches, not to mention the consideration necessary when a muscle is injured. The action of stretching is most often recommended to be: stretch until tension or a slight pulling is felt, but not outward pain. As the stretch is held, relaxation occurs, and the force on the muscle decreases causing the feeling of less tension, at which point the stretch can be performed again if necessary.
Stretching is very important in treating muscle strain injuries as it improves the effectiveness of the rehabilitation program, and over the long term may affect postural compensations when added to motor pattern retraining. Certainly many of the sedentary jobs that a majority of people have may lead to postural mal-adaptations and muscle imbalances which through repetitive movements cause overuse injuries. Depending in which athletic endeavors you partake in or the type of work you are employed in, it may be very important to be flexible, in which case stretching would be a vital part of your fitness routine. In addition to the circulatory benefits and overall well-being you feel when you are loose and limber, the long-term effect of stretching may in fact be a stretch induced hypertrophy resulting in an increase in tissue strength.
Still, before physical activity I recommend an active, dynamic warm-up in which you mimic the functional movements that you are about to perform. You should determine a strategy for yourself, but when it comes to athletic injury prevention and sports performance, remember that strength rather the stretch is the key.
Personally, I feel best when I am flexible and able to maintain a neutral posture. As such, I include stretching as part of my exercise routine - but this is after my workout or competition, or on a day unto itself. I also find mini breaks, or postural stretches useful throughout the day at work, as this helps to avoid postural imbalance and pain.
Dr. Scott D. Howitt - Director SPC-Sports
Performance Centres Ltd.