As you have figured out, there is little evidence that stretching for endurance sports has significant benefits. That said, it is likely that functional flexibility has benefits. However, the best way to get that type of specific flexibility is to simply move.

In other words, want better swimming flexibility? The best way to get that is to just swim.

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I notice it most acutely on the bike. My hips are rather inflexible, and that has ramifications for my position on the bike and my biomechanics. A lot of work with a local fitter has dialed in a pretty functional position, albeit within the constraints of my lack of flexibility. You're saying just biking a lot may ease that over time?

Certainly, running a lot is not making me more flexible--on the contrary, it feels like it has exactly the opposite effect over time.

Swimming is interesting, inflexibility feels like much less of an impediment and I could be persuaded that swimming itself can help there.

I had a lot of back pain over the years (hockey, water skiing) cycling, swimming and running it was worse. Esp kick work swimming. Seriously limiting my pool time too much pain.

As I said in this video, it's those strong lower pelvis to lumbar connections that just pull or gnaw at the lower lumbar because they are too tight. You know it!

I designed this stretch from various elements - a hanging swimmer's stretch, yoga and some things I was doing in the TRX. Put them all together and bingo, I have not had back trouble since. I do this most days. If I don't my back starts to get sore and I just spend 10 minutes or so hanging around. I also like to stretch and roll my quads and do core work from time to time.

But give this one a try. My PT was quite impressed said I should "patent it" Too late for that!

<

Let me know if you can do it

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That looks potentially quite helpful. But figuring out where/how to do it is another matter... :)

Tightness in the legs from the bottom up was the and always has been the source of my back, foot and leg problems. Moving from power lifting to triathlon meant my normal core routine which offset the pain was not there anymore so when I get to longer distances, I would get back pain. Tried yoga and I found it worked wonders. After going regularly a couple of months, I was able to maintain flexibility and mitigate the pain with minimal effort. I found power worked well, but burned calories needed for training or left me to tired to adequately train on the same day, so I switched to yin which was less intense. Pretty much pain free and when plantar fasciitis acts up I go to a class and it seems to ease a lot.

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I don't stretch at all but foam roller a bit (not enough mind) and occasionally get a massage (again not often enough.) In my opinion I'd err on the side of foam roller/ massage rather than stretching. I like the roller before a workout as it also serves as a pre warm up warm up and it's good for preparing you for the session. If I had more time/ more patience I'd foam roll way more and it's always the one thing I try to force myself to do more of as I feel the benefits quite readily after.

Iain

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Sample size of 1 ;)

I used to stretch after every activity, then I read that it was a waste of time, so I stopped. After stopping stretching I picked up loads of injuries!
The injuries could have been caused by other things, who knows
I stretch now

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So your "tight"?

Don't look at stretching as the solution, first find out what the problem is, then find the solution.

For example, it could be anatomical. Hamstring tightness can come from an anteriorly tilted pelvis, I have seen people who have tight hamstrings just by standing still.

The solution of to swim more I don't agree with. Not saying it won't work, but it doesn't search for the cause of the problem. Your tight hamstrings could be a training issue, anatomical problem, etc.

My bike fitter attributed my good aero position to good flexibility. I work on stretching when I go to the gym (2-3 times a week). I figure if I have been stretching, and not getting any injuries, ill just keep doing what I am doing.

Nifty!

Dynamic stretch before.
Foam Roll afterwards.

I stretch sometimes after a tough run, but that is usually because I am tired and just want to lie down / hang for a few minutes :-)

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Just to be clear, the article is addressing "routine stretching as part of your warm up." That is different than "stretching as therapy to address specific issues."

Back in my swimming days, we stretched for 15-20 minutes before every workout. I never thought it did much other than a) cut 15-20 minutes of the time we had to spend suffering in the pool and b) provide some entertainment opportunities for some people to show off how flexible they already were. I was pretty flexible in my shoulders at least back then but I don't think daily stretching had much if anything to do with it.

On the other hand, stretching is very effective in dealing with specific issues. Over the years I have had some IT band issues and, my torture of late, periodic major tightness in my glutes and hips from cycling which makes my lower back hurt. In both cases, I have been saved by doing specific stretches to address these specific issues.

I warm up before workouts. 5-10' easy. Also try to do trigger point massage (RumbleRoller) a few times a week for body alignment and to relax tight muscles/adhesions. My favorite time to roll is just before a run.

Before a race I'll warm up (run/swim) and just before the swim start I'll do a few quick, dynamic calf stretches because I've had muscle cramping issues in the past (bike) and it seems to help.

After a quality workout I stretch for 5'. It feels good, and at age 44, I've had very few sport-related injuries. I am able to hold a fairly low position on my tri bike in part due to flexibility. So put quite simply, I'm going to continue to do what works for me.

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I've never been one to stretch, but my last two knee injuries have been caused by tight hamstrings, so I'm going to start just stretching the hamstrings before and after runs.

That may be the case. Or it may not be the case. Or running may make some joints more flexible and others less flexible. You would have to precisely measure your range of motion at each affected joint when sedentary, and then after being solidly well into a running program. And then compare those two numbers. I would guess that the results of precise measurement might surprise you.

But, of course, your age and aging over time also play a part. But if running is indeed making you less flexible in some joints, likely that is what you need as a runner. Oddly enough, more flexibility in certain joints will make a you a slower runner and/or a more injury-prone runner.

An important aside: for certain joints, running may not be making you less flexible. But running and then sitting (as many of us have to do at our jobs) could be making you less flexible. That might be the issue. Things are complicated, and few things are totally black or white.

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It is very clear to me (from personal experience) that stretching after running and cycling reduces soreness and helps with cramping and tightness.

Ice baths do the same thing.

On the other hand:
The reason that we train is not to be sore. It is to cause our bodies to change in response to the training stimulus.
If stretching and ice baths reduce soreness, then do they also limit the bodies response to the training stimulus?

Well maximum adaptation is only one of my training goals.
Feeling good is another.

If stretching reduces soreness but also reduce my bodies adaptation to training it is a fair trade off- if I feel better.

I will continue to stretch.

I used to stretch before and after warmup for swimming.

Now I just stretch my arms over my head before I get into the water and all of my shoulder issues went away.

Started that about 3 years ago.

jaretj

Exactly. But it's more expedient to debunk pre-workout "warmup" rituals than to study post-workout relaxation and therapy techniques. And it makes for more sensationalist journalism.

Five years after my spine fusion it would be silly of me to think everyone needs to stretch the same ways that I do. That doesn't mean I'd be better off without it.

Regardless of what reports and studies say, my body tells me to stretch after running.

No stretching = ouch

stretching = less ouch

I'm not talking about some new style dynamic stretch stuff. The key for me is old school static stretches right after I finish a run.

I don't stretch before biking or running. I do dynamic stretching before running. I do foam rolling, stretching, and sometimes a few rubber band strengthening exercises most evenings. I'm old and I was getting tighter every year, and it just feels healthier and better to have reasonable flexibility. I do think the flexibility has helped my aero position on the bike, some folks say it doesn't matter and that may be true for younger, limber folks but for me it's really helped me ride with an aggressive aero position despite my age. For a long time I didn't stretch, and I incurred some overuse injuries from running and biking that interfered with my training and forced me to raise my handlebars, among other things. A long bout of PT helped, and I've kept up the specific stretching and strengthening I learned in PT and am now injury free and once again riding with an aggressive position. I had a top 10% Olympic bike split a week ago at age 62 mostly due to being aero, it certainly wasn't my FTP, LOL.

Also, I didn't take up swimming until late in life and have shoulder and ankle mobility issues that hinder my technique, and I do specific stretching to address both issues. Progress is slow but I keep plugging away.

Stretching as a warmup may well be a myth, and it may be politically correct on ST to badmouth stretching, but personally I find stretching very worthwhile as a supplement to my training program.

I don't stretch, I don't warm up, and I don't foam roll. I have never seen a tangible benefit to any of those activities either now, as an endurance athlete, or as a weightlifter. Sometimes if the muscle wasn't warmed up you could have a cramp but I normally did my heaviest sets pretty cold. Normally people who had to get a warm-up pump first were on roids, but I digress...

I never, ever, ever stretched as I saw neither science behind nor reason for it.

Now, at 53, with some seriously tight adductors, I stretch those muscles only after a short warm-up.

I have never been one to live and die by the next 'study' that says one way or the other I just experiment for myself. My back revolts quickly in a few days w/o stretching a few culprits. Hammys, IT, TFL, glutes and adductors don't do well with lots of sitting and that is my job: travel. I have half a dozen stretches I do on the floor takes 15 mintues. Do them every day, no issues. Skip a few days when really busy, hello trouble. It's not just helping it's the difference b/t being able to go on the road or not. Even on weeks when I don't travel and don't sit a lot like vaca last week I have to stay on it or my back will start saying 'heyyyyy don't forget about me dummy!'.

As far as other parts go I think activity is what has helped. Swimming more helps me get more range and I don't stretch any of those muscles other than pulling on side of pool for a minute or two on lats after warm up b/f main set.

Tiger - Do you not feel though that swimming itself stretches you out a lot, espec the flip turns which IMO stretch your lower back, but also just the whole act of stretching your arms out on every stroke. Regardless of what stroke i'm doing, it seems/feels to me like i'm stretching out on every stroke. I stretch outside the pool some also but mostly just as i feel the need. I don't have the back/leg issues that flare up if i don't stretch. Not saying i'm super flexible b/c i'm not, but just that my body is diff from yours:)

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Interesting discussion that I had a few days ago with a mate - methods to reduce inflammation (Ice baths, NSAI, etc) reduce your bodies adaptation so you are taking say..5% (arbitrary figure) off your possible gains from a particular work out. It does however, leave you feeling better so you could possibly give 5% more in your next work out. Evens out.

What are the impacts of say... having a hot bath after a hard work out, rather than an ice bath? Does the increase in possible inflammation cause a better adaptation response so you gain more from a work out (possibly at the cost of being sorer the next day)?

I don't see how stretching or an ice bath, or a hot bath, could possibly "reduce your adaptation". When we train, we raise our heart rates and use our muscles strenuously, whereas when we stretch or take any sort of bath, we only change our HR marginally and we aren't really using our muscles in a strenuous manner, so i don't see how any of these things could interfere with adaptation. Certainly, it does feel good to stretch out tired muscles but my sense is that this is just a pleasant sensation w/ little relation to swimming/biking/running at a training pace. I stretch about 15 minutes or so after about 80% runs but, if it is raining or i'm in a hurry, i skip the stretching session and don't worry about it. I never notice the next day that i did not stretch yesterday.

All of that said, the only stretching I do religiously is what you might call "the swimmer's stretch", i.e. i put my arms up over my head in the "streamline position" and then stretch them as hard as i can up to the ceiling prob about 8-10 times per day. I don't really count this as stretching per se b/c it is so ingrained as to be almost reflexive, i.e. i don't even have to be thinking about it and might find myself just doing it unconsciously while talking to someone about something entirely unrelated to swimming. However, if you were to take 8 to 10 x 1.5 min, then i do about 12-15 min of shoulder stretching 365 days/yr:)

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I approach it from personal experience. This is not something that requires a peer-reviewed study. It is not physics or aerodynamics. It is simply deciding how you feel and perform as a consequence of doing something vs not. So why overcomplicate it?

Dont go to a peer reviewed study. Try it. Over time you get a sense of what works and what does not if you just pay attention to bow your body feels and record how it performs.

No need to agonize over something that is so easy to test.

As a former stretcher and tight hamstringed athlete I have to agree. I have read all the research and personally polled high level athletes most of who rarely if ever stretch.

My multiple kona qualified physical therapists states that he only stretches when he has the rare injury.

I do foam roll but that is about the end of it.

I have never really noticed any benefit from stretching and don't really enjoy it and would rather do something else with my time. Such as follow ST.

Sure swimming makes my back feel great, but I have had back problems for almost 30 years and have added/removed variables enough to know what the magic formula consists of. Swimming alone won't cut it.....feels great while I'm in the pool, but it wears within a couple of hours after my swim. I'm sitting on the floor watching Squawk Box stretching having coffee right now.....this is what sets me up for the best success of no back issues. Adding swimming is a bonus, but I need to finish off my day with another round of posterior chain stuff otherwise I wake up ouchy.

Do you stretch?
Not since 2006 when I read that there was no proven benefit to it.

Do you perceive it as helping?
Yes, I perceive not stretching as helping.

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Another who finds not stretching after exercise counterproductive; particularly my hamstrings. I would say a 'cool down' is maybe what is important i.e. not going out and smashing a run, then going straight to the showers. For me, I'd be really tight the next day doing that.

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29 years and counting

Short answer: I do stretch, and I (anecdotally) find that it helps me at least feel like I'm preventing injury. I seem not to get as injured if I stretch both before and after a workout. Is it scientific? No. Have I been injured during a workout even after I've stretched? Yup. Does it mean stretching didn't help? Don't know, since I can't predict if the injury would have been worse (or better) had I not stretched. I do know that if I get injured and I haven't stretched, I say to myself "I should have stretched first".

One more note about the scientific literature (sparse though it may be). Most often the subjects tend to be younger, healthier, and less injury prone as a population (usually military recruits, student athletes, etc.). So it's hard to know how applicable the results are to older populations at various stages of training, flexibility and metabolism. Not saying the results would be different necessarily, but I don't know that blanket statements on either side can be considered definitive.

PT was all over me about stretching. I did as I was told and prolonged my injury.

This is called faith.

You are actions are rooted on your belief in a practice that has no evidence.

Don't feel bad. Several billion people do it in some form or another.

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I had a PT working on my IT band and he asked me if I stretched. I told him no. He said don't start. Basically if you stretch, keep stretching. If you don't, then don't start.

I stretch a couple of times a week after a cooldown, physical therapy exercises and self myofascial release. I've also dealt with ITBS and Hamstring Strains in the past, so it helps with my hips, hamstrings and calves not feeling as tight. I don't miss it when I miss a stretching session though; and my hip flexors became noticeably less tight when I started PT/Hip Strengthening exercises. There's a noticeable difference when I miss 2 or 3 days of PT in a row. So YMMV.

Also, when I'm in the car for more than a couple of hours, I'll some times have to stop and stretch my hamstring thanks to being in pain. In regards to injury prevention I don't know that stretching helps much and my physical therapist didn't implement it into our rehab protocol. Just strength training and self myofascial release.

Dropping science:

I stretched just one leg and didn't stretch the other, as a control, for a week.

After the week both of my legs felt the same...jacked up from 15 hours of training!

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You are quite correct. Unfortunately, you are also practicing faith, as nearly all research articles on the matter (especially meta-analyses) are noncomittal on the subject. At best, you can say that there is no proof of benefit, which is not the same as to say "proof of no benefit". Further, the "benefit" one is looking for is often different between studies (be it athletic performance, muscle injury, tendon injury, injuries of all types, etc.), making blanket statements very hard to definitively defend on either side.

So you practice your faith, I'll practice mine, and when either of us has better data, we'll share. Deal?

If an ice bath reduces post workout inflammation in a way at all analogous to anti-inflammatory medication, for example, then it's perfectly plausible it might reduce productive adaptation. Conversely, it's at least plausible that a hot shower after a workout would increase some inflammatory dynamics in a way that would bolster adaption. I suspect in the real world these effects, if they exist, would be rather modest, but it is an interesting thing to think about.

Refusing to practice and not replacing that practice with anything cannot be called faith. Nor heresy.

Nor is it a blanket statement because I'm not preaching anything.

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I've never stretched and never had a muscular/tendon/ligament injury in 30+ years in endurance racing. So much for my n=1.
I have always felt that the common 'intuition' that more flexibility can only be a good thing runs counter to my own intuition that seeking a range of motion that well exceeds that used in the activity you are training for could in fact be a risk factor for injury, rather than a protection from it, as well as compromising the spring/rebound of muscles that we rely upon in activities like running. It was no surprise to me when evidence started emerging that there was little demonstrable benefit from stretching, and that pre-exercise stretching in particular could in fact be harmful.

I came across a potentially more interesting perspective more recently in an article in RunnersWorld on the topic of what might make a 2 hour marathon possible. Among the factors & variables they considered were running efficiency and vertical leap. They referred to Paula Radcliffe, women's marathon record holder, "the most astounding marathon outlier of all time" and noted that among the steps she took to go "from good to great" was to deliberately decrease her flexibility to improve efficiency.

"She ... decreased her sit-and-reach flexibility by 1.6 inches (yes, you read that right). Muscles and tendons act as springs that store energy; stiff springs may store and return more energy with each stride. So elites like Radcliffe tend to be less flexible in places like the hamstrings and lower back; indeed, in one study of elite runners, those who were eight inches less flexible on a sit-and-reach test ran 27 percent more efficiently."

That makes perfect sense to me, and is well supported by the evidence. It is still heresy to a large portion of the 'fitness industry', though, who still promote what they 'know' to be true, rather than what the evidence actually shows to be true. I have no objection to anyone stretching because it feels good, or because they like feeling less "tight" afterwards. On the question of whether it "helps", it is worth asking "helps with what?". If you mean 'helps with athletic performance' or 'helps with injury prevention' then there's a good chance that it actually hurts.

Fun article generally, BTW: http://rw.runnersworld.com/sub-2/