Yoga and sports injury

GiddyupTim
GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
So, as a long-time practitioner of yoga, and a big fan, I have to put this out there.
Stretching does not prevent injuries associated with sports and other physical activities.
At least, that is what the sports medicine experts say.
In fact, I have heard a medical researcher, who has studied sports, injury and stretching, interviewed, and he was asked, given the lack of evidence indicating that stretching was beneficial, what he did. He said he never bothered anymore.
In 2011, there was a Cochrane review of the scientific literature on stretching and soreness after exercise. In these reviews, a panel of experts review all the studies they can find addressing a single question, and then they decide how good they think the research is, overall, and what they think it says, all taken together.
The Cochrane is an academic library, a virtual library, in England that puts these panels together.
As far as soreness is concerned, they said there were "very consistent findings," showing "little or no effect of stretching on muscle soreness experienced the week after the physical activity." They said it did not matter whether the stretching was done before or after the activity; the result was the same: no benefit.
(http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD004577/stretching-to-prevent-or-reduce-muscle-soreness-after-exercise)
A review of studies published in a sports medicine journal in 2004 examined whether stretching prevented injuries (Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2004;36:371-378). The research they reviewed included two big studies of almost 3,000 army recruits. That reivew concluded that there is "not sufficient evidence to endorse or discontinue routine stretching before or after exercise to prevent injury among competitive or recreational athletes." (from the abstract)
They did say, however, that strength training and warming up clearly do help.
What say you? Does regular, concentrated stretching have any benefit?
I mean, it does not make you any stronger and it does not increase your heart rate, so it does not work your cardiovascular system.
For myself, I would say: I have stretched and practiced yoga for years, and I think it has helped me to maintain performance and experience less injury than others.
Also, I think it is important to note that most of these research studies looked at the question in a particular way. They had subjects stretch for a month (or a few months) and measured whether they got injured in that time. They did not look at whether someone who was more limber from years of stretching experienced fewer injuries.
Finally, I think that, as far as yoga goes, it does not matter. That is not why I do yoga.