I've never been a fan of static stretching before a workout. An example of a static stretch would be like bending down and trying to touch your toes and then holding that position for a period of time.
The thought is that by doing this you're "warming up" or preparing that particular muscle for whatever activity you're about to do.
But the problem that I've always found is that if you are stretching a muscle that doesn't need stretching, is there really any benefit?
Picture a muscle like you would a rubber band. When you stretch a new rubber band, it's can be fairly tight. But if you continue to stretch that rubber band, it becomes longer in the "relaxed" position. Continue to stretch the rubber band some more over time and at some point it will snap.
The same could be said about stretching a muscle statically that doesn't need to be stretched. If you continue to stretch it, you could essentially weaken it and risk an injury if the right stimulus came around.
I'll give an example. Back a couple of years ago, former Detroit Tiger (and now Philadelphia Phillie) second baseman Placido Polanco would do a stretch of his arms over his shoulders before each pitch when he was at the plate (he'd also grit his teeth for some reason..). It was his routine.
During the 2006 season, he ran out to right field to try and catch a fly ball. He dove, caught the ball, and landed on his shoulder. He ended up separating it and missed 34 games.
What was interesting though is that when he came back after recovering from the injury there was one thing that was missing: he no longer was doing that arm stretch over his head anymore before each pitch when he was up to bat.
I won't argue for sure that the recurring stretch is what caused the injury, but at the same time, I think it would be hard pressed to say that the stretching he was doing was helpful in any way.
I bring all this up because there's more evidence coming out that static stretching before a workout isn't what it's been worked up to be over the last umpteen decades.
Traditional stretches, like when people bend over to touch their toes or stretch their legs on a fence, often cause the muscles to tighten rather than relax — exactly the opposite of what is needed for physical activity.
The body always works towards balance so this completely makes sense.
When you stretch before exercising, your body may think it's at risk of being overstretched. It compensates by contracting and becoming more tense. That means you aren't able to move as fast or as freely, making you more likely to get hurt.
The researchers are NOT saying that you should not stretch at all. They are just saying don't do static stretching before a workout. If you want to static stretch after a workout or at some other point in the day, that's okay since you're not doing an activity right after that might increase your chance of injury (at the same time, I'll take it a little further though and again say that if a muscle doesn't need stretching, then there's no reason to static stretch it).
This is probably the most important part of the article to dispel the myth that static stretching before a workout reduces the chance of injury:
In the last few years, several studies have found static stretching before playing a sport makes you slower and weaker.
And when experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention combed through more than 100 papers looking at stretching studies, they found people who stretched before exercise were no less likely to suffer injuries such as a pulled muscle, which the increased flexibility from stretching is supposed to prevent.
Does all of this mean that you should just throw on your shoes and start working out?
No, I wouldn't advise that.
These studies that we are talking about are only dealing with static stretching.
The more effective warm up or stretch to do before a workout would involve dynamic stretching.
Dynamic stretching would be doing movements that resemble more along the lines of what kind of activity that you're about to do.
If you're ready to run or walk, do some forward lunges, reverse lunges, squats, side squats, etc. If you're ready to do some bench presses with dumbbells, do pushups beforehand.
These types of movements will help get your body ready in a more practical manner to the exercise that you're about to do as well as increase your core body temperature. Which means overall, your entire body will be prepared and not just individual parts statically stretched in a movement that doesn't resemble the movement that you are about to take on.
Also, a quick note that also is talked about in the article: yoga.
Those types of stretches are commonly used in yoga, which emphasizes how the body is aligned during stretches, not just flexibility. Many yoga poses involve the whole body and focus not only on stretching a particular muscle, but the ligaments, tendons and joints around it.
Meaning, yoga is a different animal and it's not just all about statically stretching individual muscles, it's about stretching the body as a whole. So don't take this kind of study to mean that yoga is a bad or a potentially dangerous exercise to do.
Static stretching before a workout has been common practice for a long time and I'm glad to see that it's getting more press that it's not all up to what it claims to be.
www.leanbodytraining.com
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