To stretch or not to stretch?

BinaryPulsar

What do you all think this stretching is going to achieve?

What's the point?

Well, I am a dancer, so flexibility and dance training is also important to me. Flexibility may not be needed or important to you, but it's just nuts to think no one else can benefit from it. There are sooo many enjoyable things a person can do with flexibility. I also lift weights (which is also good for flexibility and strength). But, I still need to train as a dancer for my dancing.

And it feels good.

I didn't question sport specific flexibility training (although many methods are questionable), I was asking why these members stretch, what they are trying to achieve.

I understand. And I was answering your question (being one of the members). Many people find it beneficial in a lot of ways (maybe others will reply as well). I'm not sure why it matter to you if other people enjoy it? Maybe they want to be able to get into sexual positions for an extended period of time.

redraidergirl2009

A trainer told me that you can hurt yourself doing static stretches before working out because the muscles are not warmed up. He suggested just doing a 5-10min warm up like on the treadmill and a cooldown and a little stretching after.

SusieSonshine

This short article looks at some of the tips, tricks and helpful hints you can use to help prevent sports injury and do-away with stiff, aching muscles & joints. It''s been put together to answer some of the more common questions we get regarding stretching and sports injury, and details a number of useful sports injury prevention techniques.

Overcoming & Preventing Sports Injury

If you’re involved in the health & fitness industry, whether it be participating in your favorite sport, coaching, training or just keeping fit, you'll know how annoying and debilitating a sports injury can be. In reality, when you have a sports injury you’re actually losing on two fronts. Firstly, you’re losing simply because your body has been hurt and now needs time and care to repair itself. And on top of this, you’re also losing the time you could have been putting into training and improving your sporting ability.

A sports injury is a bit like losing money. Not only do you lose whatever you were going to buy with that money, but you also have to work hard to make up the money you've lost. Take it from me, a sports injury is one of the most frustrating and debilitating occurrences that can happen to anyone who’s serious about their health, fitness, sport or exercise.

The Cold, Hard Facts

I recently read an article titled "Managing Sports Injuries" where the author estimated that over 27,000 American''s sprain their ankle every day. (And no, that's not a typo, EVERY DAY!) On top of this, Sports Medicine Australia estimates that 1 in every 17 participants of sport and exercise are injured playing their favourite sport. This figure is even higher for contact sports like Football and Gridiron. However, the truly disturbing fact is that up to 50 percent of these injuries may have been prevented.

The Professionals Secret Weapon

While there are a number of basic preventative measures that will assist in the prevention of sports injury, there is one technique that has slowly been gaining in popularity. It’s still not used as often as it should be by the average sports participant, but with the professionals using it more and more, it’s only a matter of time before it starts to catch on. Before we dive into this little used technique for minimizing your likelihood of sports injury, let's take a quick look at some other techniques to help you prevent sports injury.

So, Where Do You Start?

Most people are coming to understand both the importance and the benefits of a good warm-up. A correct warm-up will help to raise body temperature, increase blood flow and promote oxygen supply to the muscles. It will also help to prepare the mind, body, muscles and joints for the physical activity to come.

While warming-up is important, a good cool-down also plays a vital role in helping to prevent sports injury. How? A good cool-down will prevent blood from pooling in your limbs. It will also prevent waste products, such as lactic acid, building up in your muscles. Not only that, a good cool-down will help your muscles and tendons to relax and loosen, stopping them from becoming stiff and tight.

While preventative measures such as warming-up and cooling-down play a vital role in minimizing the likelihood of sports injury, other techniques such as obeying the rules, using protective equipment and plain common sense are all useful.

The One Technique to Cut Your Chance of Injury by More Than Half

So what is this magic technique? Why is it such a secret? And how come you haven''t heard of it before? Well chances are you have, and also, it’s not that secret and it’s definitely not magic. You''ve probably used this technique yourself at some point or at least seen others using it. But the real question is, how dedicated have you been to making this technique a consistent part of your athletic preparation?

What is it? STRETCHING. Yes, stretching. The simple technique of stretching can play an imperative role in helping you to prevent the occurrence of sports injury. Unfortunately stretching is one area of athletic preparation often neglected. Do not underestimate its benefits. Don''t make the mistake of thinking that something as simple as stretching won''t be effective. Stretching is a vital part of any exercise program and should be looked upon as being as important as any other part of your health and fitness.

In recent time the professionals have been getting more and more serious about stretching and ultimately, their flexibility. The coaches and trainers are just starting to realize how important flexible muscles are to helping prevent sports injury. Flexibility has often been neglected in the overall conditioning of modern athletes. It’s only now that its benefits are proving invaluable to all those serious about staying injury free.

How Does Stretching Prevent Injury?

One of the greatest benefits of stretching is that you’re able to increase the length of both your muscles and tendons. This leads to an increased range of movement, which means your limbs and joints can move further before an injury occurs. Let''s take a look at a few examples.

If the muscles in your neck are tight and stiff this limits your ability to look behind or turn your head around. If for some reason your head is turned backwards, past its normal range of movement, in a football scrum or tackle for example, this could result in a muscle tear or strain. You can help to prevent this from happening by increasing the flexibility, and the range of movement, of the muscles and tendons in your neck.

And what about the muscles in the back of your legs? The Hamstring muscles. These muscles are put under a huge strain when doing any sort of sport which involves running and especially for sports which require kicking. Short, tight hamstring muscles can spell disaster for many sports people. By ensuring these muscles are loose and flexible, you''ll cut your chance of a hamstring injury dramatically.

How else can stretching help? While injuries can occur at any time, they are more likely to occur if the muscles are fatigued, tight and depleted of energy. Fatigued, tight muscles are also less capable of performing the skills required for your particular sport or activity. Stretching can help to prevent an injury by promoting recovery and decreasing soreness. Stretching ensures that your muscles and tendons are in good working order. The more conditioned your muscles and tendons are, the better they can handle the rigors of sport and exercise, and the less likely that they''ll become injured.

So as you can see, there''s more to stretching than most people think. Stretching is a simple and effective activity which will help you to enhance your athletic performance, decrease your likelihood of sports injury and minimise muscle soreness

FifiFrizzle

I stretch after my cool down, or during the end of my cool down. And I do a long stretching session two or thee times a week after a two hour pool session. My flexibility has really improved with this. I understand there is little benefit to be had stretching before a workout. After Zumba class we have a very brief stretching session, not long enough for me, I felt myself getting stiff after exercise, hence the careful attention to stretching after my water workouts.
As to why stretch? I think it improves my posture. It feels good. I am seeking increased suppleness and flexibility and stretching contributes to that.

IronSmasher

What do you all think this stretching is going to achieve?

What's the point?

Well, I am a dancer, so flexibility and dance training is also important to me. Flexibility may not be needed or important to you, but it's just nuts to think no one else can benefit from it. There are sooo many enjoyable things a person can do with flexibility. I also lift weights (which is also good for flexibility and strength). But, I still need to train as a dancer for my dancing.

And it feels good.

I didn't question sport specific flexibility training (although many methods are questionable), I was asking why these members stretch, what they are trying to achieve.

I understand. And I was answering your question (being one of the members). Many people find it beneficial in a lot of ways (maybe others will reply as well). I'm not sure why it matter to you if other people enjoy it? Maybe they want to be able to get into sexual positions for an extended period of time.

I understand, and I still wasn't clear, I know.

Thank you for answer, but I already knew why you stretch because I read you earlier post. I'd like to know the reasons why the general public think it's an important aspect of general exercise.

It's important to me to extend my own knowledge, to understand people and their views on diet and exercise (mainly why I'm here) and I guess I can't really explain why, but it's very important to me that myths are not perpetuated.

MeaghanAnderson

You guys are awesome, thank you for your feedback I appreciate it! I'm going to start warming up a bit before I stretch. Thanks again :-)

BinaryPulsar

What do you all think this stretching is going to achieve?

What's the point?

Well, I am a dancer, so flexibility and dance training is also important to me. Flexibility may not be needed or important to you, but it's just nuts to think no one else can benefit from it. There are sooo many enjoyable things a person can do with flexibility. I also lift weights (which is also good for flexibility and strength). But, I still need to train as a dancer for my dancing.

And it feels good.

I didn't question sport specific flexibility training (although many methods are questionable), I was asking why these members stretch, what they are trying to achieve.

I understand. And I was answering your question (being one of the members). Many people find it beneficial in a lot of ways (maybe others will reply as well). I'm not sure why it matter to you if other people enjoy it? Maybe they want to be able to get into sexual positions for an extended period of time.

I understand, and I still wasn't clear, I know.

Thank you for answer, but I already knew why you stretch because I read you earlier post. I'd like to know the reasons why the general public think it's an important aspect of general exercise.

It's important to me to extend my own knowledge, to understand people and their views on diet and exercise (mainly why I'm here) and I guess I can't really explain why, but it's very important to me that myths are not perpetuated.

Thanks for explaining that better.

marioalberto1

What I've read that stretching before strength training is bad. It reduces strength and increases the chance for injury.

mimy1984

I totally agree with you, it helps my body not hurt so much.

waldo56

What do you all think this stretching is going to achieve?

What's the point?

Good question. We've been going through this on the yoga forums and ended up with not a lot. Yoga the day after your workout seems to work better for flexibility.

This.

Also though, standard static stretching is hilariously ineffective at increasing flexibility.

Strengthening the stretched position is much more effective. Strengthening the glutes and flexors in the straddle position has done far more for my split depth than statically stretching my groins.

I don't bother to stretch my hamstrings around workouts, that hasn't hindered me at all in developing the compression flexibility to touch my head to my knees in a straight leg seated hamstring stretch.

gxm17

What do you all think this stretching is going to achieve?

What's the point?

Well, I am a dancer, so flexibility and dance training is also important to me. Flexibility may not be needed or important to you, but it's just nuts to think no one else can benefit from it. There are sooo many enjoyable things a person can do with flexibility. I also lift weights (which is also good for flexibility and strength). But, I still need to train as a dancer for my dancing.

And it feels good.

I didn't question sport specific flexibility training (although many methods are questionable), I was asking why these members stretch, what they are trying to achieve.

That's like asking why do you strength training, or why do you do cardio training. Stretching increases flexibility and in conjunction with strength and cardio, it can help you avoid injuries or develop problem areas like lower back pain. Whenever I've been to PT they always include strengthening and stretching exercises. IMO, that's because you need both to keep your body in good working order.

GiddyupTim

I apologize for being contentious. But, it is stated up above in a "short" article that stretching is really important for injury prevention. There is no support in the article for that belief and this is something I have looked into rather extensively. There is no support in the medical literature either.
Experts have tried to show that stretching will prevent injury in prospective trials, and found no benefit. I have heard experts say they have given up stretching for themselves.
That said, these studies have been short term experiments where half the people have been told to stretch for a few months and half the people not told to do that. So, they may say nothing about whether the person who is naturally more limber, or more limber from years of yoga or gymnastics, is less likely to become injured.
For myself, I do yoga at least twice a week. But I do not expect it will save me from injury. Warming up may do that.

BinaryPulsar

What do you all think this stretching is going to achieve?

What's the point?

Good question. We've been going through this on the yoga forums and ended up with not a lot. Yoga the day after your workout seems to work better for flexibility.

This.

Also though, standard static stretching is hilariously ineffective at increasing flexibility.

Strengthening the stretched position is much more effective. Strengthening the glutes and flexors in the straddle position has done far more for my split depth than statically stretching my groins.

I don't bother to stretch my hamstrings around workouts, that hasn't hindered me at all in developing the compression flexibility to touch my head to my knees in a straight leg seated hamstring stretch.

I'm not sure what the distinction is here. The only "stretching" I do is from yoga. I don't see what the distinction is between stretching and yoga. I do yoga stretches for example for my hip flexors because it can be helpful for people that have had knee injuries. I guess stretching must have some other meaning that I am unaware of. Yoga involves dynamic movement stretching as well as some moments of holding certain stretches such as child's pose (as one example). There are some stretches that you need to allow your body some time to relax into, for them to be the most effective. I also do not understand this distinction between "stretching" and doing a split. A split is stretching, as is all the other things described above (touching ones head to ones knees is a stretch that you are apparently doing as you said that you can do it). Clearly there is some other specific meaning to the nature of "stretching" that I am not aware of.

But, come on, people, it's just common sense with the body that you use it or lose it, so if you want to maintain being youthful and limber and pain free, using your body in a flexibility promoting type of manner is helpful with that. If I experience tense, painful shoulders, I do stretches and they feel better and I can move better. There is no nonsense "study' that is going to convince me not to do something that feels good and reduces unnecessary pain and tension. I'd rather do my own movement/stretches than to pay someone to give me a massage if I don't need to do that. And I have studied science and I'm married to a successful scientist as well. Science is a big part of my life, but some people seem to forget that science does not mean losing common sense. Science actually requires common sense and learning in many different ways (that does not exclude experiential learning).

And, perhaps I am the only one that has this experience, but I find a reduction in injury when I ease my body into positions with stretching before attempting to rapidly kick my leg up as high as I can (and be able to hold it there and not just rely on momentum). And to be clear when I talk about stretching I am talking about a combination of yoga, dynamic movement, and some holding and releasing the body deeper into positions.

Also, I have had excellent results from the Feldenkrais Method for increasing range of motion and removing pain. That helped me after I had been in serious car accidents.

And it's not just professional dancers that enjoy movement and flexibility. It can be recreation as well

Another example, as dancers, that do jumps, it is important to maintain the flexibility and range of motion of the Achilles tendon.

My daughter and I were both born with a severe case of metatarsus adductus. Luckily, people that have a mild case can correct it by having the parent regularly and gently manipulate the foot by stretching it. For my daughter and I, it was too severe, so we had to have two sets of casts and then wear shoes for 23 hours a day until outgrowing them, to keep our feet in a steady stretched state. Without it, I would not have been able to walk, but now you can not even tell by looking at my feet that I ever had the problem. So, there is just one medical application of the concept of "stretching".

BinaryPulsar

...if you point your toes, you are stretching your feet, and if you don't stretch them other ways, you'll get cramps and imbalances.

If you have something such as carpal tunnel syndrome, it helps to relieve the pressure and swelling to do movement and stretches for the wrist. If you are typing a lot, you can take breaks to stretch the wrists into other ranges of motion to help prevent the problem. This applies to the entire body as well. But, again, I am of course referring to dynamic movement as well as some stretches. Both are helpful, and I guess I think of both as a type of stretching.

If you are flexible you will prevent injury by having a greater range of motion when encountering the potentially injury inducing situation. Unless you are hyper-flexible, which is injury prone and lacks control.

But, it appears that people have a limited understanding of what stretching means. I guess people seem to think it applies to a very specific and limited set of stretches (maybe even just one stretch) that they learned in elementary gym class (or something).