Let the Stretching Controversy End!

It seems like almost every month I see another article written about the benefits, or lack thereof, from stretching. Most recently an article in the NYTimes Play magazine(Oct. 31, 2008) related the “new” science behind dynamic stretching, which is just a new term for calisthenics without the toe touching, and includes marching and something they called the “scorpion”. This kind of warm-up stretching is of course better for athletes than just starting with static stretching, at least when it comes to the legs and arms of runners and pitchers. Because of the “golgi reflex” or neuromuscular inhibitory response to static stretching, there is a reduction in a muscle’s ability to contract for up to 20 minutes afterwards. The article also related the results of another large study that found that static stretching before exercise does not reduce the risk of injury.

I’ve always said that the best time to really stretch your muscles is after you are fully warmed-up, such as after your cardiovascular exercise. That’s when you can really take your time and feel your muscles lengthening. By concentrating on long bouts of passive stretching after my training, I personally completely changed by flexibility from not even being able to touch my knees to being able to place my head comfortably on my shins while hugging my feet in about one year of effort. That being said, I always do pre-training stretching, which includes some dynamic stretching and some short bouts of static stretching for specific areas. Contrary to the premise that is so often cited in all the articles about stretching, the reason I, and I believe most professional athletes and dancers, stretch before training is to improve performance. The effect of stretching for performance has been studied and results show it does have a positive effect. There are more studies going on, believe me, but if you ask athletes for whom flexibility is required to execute their sport effectively, they will unanimously tell you that stretching is an important part of their training. But again, the reason isn’t to prevent injury, it is to improve performance. Why don’t any of these scientists who want to study stretching ever ask actual athletes or professional dancers whose careers require flexibility, why they stretch. Instead, it is like they heard some old coach in a gym class say you should stretch so you won’t get injured and they assumed that is the only reason why. It is just a dumb premise and I wish they would look at the other, more obvious benefits of stretching and at the other things athletes can do to prevent injury.

Now, the question I think that is very interesting is just how does stretching improve performance. On a simple functional level, more range of motion and flexibility will allow someone with good coordination to exhibit greater agility and mobility. These skills usually translate to improved performance in most sports. It has also been shown that if a muscle is tight, it will have less strength, or be able to produce less force, than if it was normal. Furthermore, one excessively tight muscle can prevent the optimal functioning of a group of muscles, thus reducing performance in activities that require activation of several muscle groups at once. This is where I would argue for a little static stretching before training if you have a particular muscle that is tight to begin with, either from lack of use or from overuse. A muscle that is tight is already pre-exhausted. In addition, it’s opposite muscle, or antagonist, is working a little in the opposite direction to bring the body in balance. This creates an inefficient system and wastes valuable energy that could otherwise be used in performance. Therefore, if my calves are really tight because of hill training a couple of days ago, I’m going to spend a little more time stretching them before my training just to get them to feel loose. Granted, I hold a static stretch before training for no longer than 10 to 20 seconds, whereas after training I might hold the stretch for up to a minute or more. Nevertheless, it isn’t high kicks or jumping jacks that will help this area get loose. The pre-training stretch routine you do should be relevant to what your body needs, not what some scientist says is best. Who knows what they were calling stretching in the first place – did they use good form, did they breathe, did they listen to their bodies? I doubt it. The fact is, there isn’t just one way to do things. I remember one study that took a group of Olympic weight lifters and had half add a basic pole stretch for their chests to their pre-lift warm-up, while the other group just kept training as usual. After 5 weeks, the group that trained as usual saw no improvement in the amount of weight they were lifting, whereas the stretching group improved their maximum weight lifted by 5-10kg, which is pretty significant at their level. So, contrary to the recent study that showed reduced strength (force) in a muscle from static stretching, this study showed increased strength. I would speculate that the weight lifters probably had excessively tight pectoral muscles from steady training which was impeding their performance. Bringing a little more flexibility to the muscles before training allowed for greater circulation both in the vascular and nervous systems. It also allowed antagonist muscles to be more relaxed and for their muscular system to be more efficient and balanced. This would allow for more energy to be directed at executing the movements required for their sport, thus improving performance. I don’t know for how long the participants held the pole stretch, maybe they only held it for a few seconds at a time, like the way I do, and maybe they didn’t push really hard in the stretch as common sense would tell them not to do, so it didn’t create much of the neuromuscular inhibitory response. In any case, they didn’t do the dynamic stretches codified now by so many experts, yet they improved performance.