“After doing it for thirty years, I’m absolutely convinced that stretching does help keep me injury free”
You’d get along well with Frank Day. As long as it makes sense to you, to hell with facts and science!
“Stretching cold just before an event is not a good idea however as it could actually cause an injury”
True.
“What stretching has been shown to do is increase joint range of motion”
Lucky for me, as long as I feel my ROM is acceptable, I’m happy.
“Although that may not be very important for cycling or running, it could be in other sports. Activities such as gymnastics for example”
Maybe, but that’s for another forum. ST doesn’t usually use gymnastics as a reason to do or not do something in our training schedule
I Stretch after everything,
I stretch my legs (4 different stretches x 20 seconds per leg) after bike and run.
After a swim I will stretch my shoulders (about 4 stretches x 20 sec per shoulder).
After working out, I will do a full body routine, It only takes about 5 min tops to do a full body stretch, so what’s the big deal.
Managed to find a review article:
Warm-Up and Stretching in the prevention of Muscular Injury, Sports Med 2007.
Does a good job of tying up a research on the positives of stretching.
Mainly talks about increased range of motion and injury prevention.
So articles out there do mention it helps and it doesn’t.
My conclusion, take 3-5 minutes after a workout and stretch, jeez.
Here is a segment on stretching from my blog:
[Stretching and its beneficial effects.
3/11/2007
I used to do static stretching(holding a stretch for 5-10sec’s), about 10 minutes into every run.
However have stopped doing the above static stretches. Am now following advice from coaches and scientific study which suggest static stretching before events can actually slow the muscles contractions down a bit. Now I do stretches using a swinging motion of legs and upper body(active/dynamic stretching). Actually noticed some of the All Black players doing this type of stretching in match warm-ups several years ago( before being advised about it). Recall many years ago debating these different types of stretching at rugby practices.
Anyway active stretches is enjoyable and less painful for me than static stretching.
Even read recently that some studies had shown stretching to be of no benefit ; exactly what context they were referring to I am not sure. To be honest scientific studies can get carried away with their own self promotion sometimes.
Whatever a scientific study might say, it is a certainty that flexibilty is required for many techniques required in sports(eg the shoulder movements in swimming). To increase/maintain ones flexibility will require some sort of stretching. Yoga definitely has the effect of increasing flexibility and yoga looks like it incorporates alot of stretching.
Also a muscle is made up of many fibres. Stretching the muscle fibres and the surrounding connective tissue allows the athlete to get an increased contraction and therefore enhanced performance(assuming it is active stretching, if it is before an event). That is, the total length of a stretched muscle is a result of the number of fibers stretched - the more fibers stretched, the more length developed by the muscle for a given stretch. More muscle length available for muscle contraction equals more power. ]
I do some stretching but not as much as I would like. Physiotherapists know all about the importance of stretching!
Some of the answers above have covered it really well but thought to add my 2 cents worth.
To perform at the top and stay there some stretching would be required unless you are very fortunate. Often men have problems with flexibility and reduced flexibilty can hinder performance in swim/bike/run.
If you look into it more and think about it there should start to be some consistency in the ‘theories and practises’ out there that you mentioned.
…19 subjects performed a 40-minute lower extremity stretching routine three times a week for 10 weeks. Their subsequent performance was compared to a control group by measuring flexibility, power (via 20-m sprint, standing long jump, vertical jump), strength (knee flexion and knee extension one-repetition maximum ), and strengthendurance (number of repetitions at 60% of 1RM for both knee flexion and knee extension). The results showed that the stretching group had significant improvements for flexibility (18.1%), standing long jump (2.3%), vertical jump (6.7%), 20-m sprint (1.3%), knee flexion 1RM (15.3%), knee extension 1RM (32.4%), knee-flexion endurance (30.4%) and knee-extension endurance (28.5%)… Med Sci Sports Exerc 2007; 39(10):1825-31(Excerpted from Peak Performance On Line)
I stretch for a good 5-10 min after every workout… my legs/arms/shoulders feel terrible if I don’t. Occassionally will stretch a little before a workout.
I stretch every morning, no matter what. It takes less than 10 minutes. I basically have to stretch my lower back/hamstrings/butt muscles (periphormis, etc) or I will regret it later in the day. Even if I’m having a day of, or a travel day, whatever, I have to to do it. My butt muscles are all balled up and the A.R.T. highly reccomended I stretch every day, and as i said, I either do it or pay the price.
"ST doesn’t usually use gymnastics as a reason to do or not do something in our training schedule "
You’re missing the bigger picture. A flexible joint is a “younger” joint. A flexible body is a “younger” body. It’s just another component in the over all fitness regime.
I Stretch after everything,
I stretch my legs (4 different stretches x 20 seconds per leg) after bike and run.
After a swim I will stretch my shoulders (about 4 stretches x 20 sec per shoulder).
After working out, I will do a full body routine, It only takes about 5 min tops to do a full body stretch, so what’s the big deal.
Managed to find a review article:
Warm-Up and Stretching in the prevention of Muscular Injury, Sports Med 2007.
Does a good job of tying up a research on the positives of stretching.
Mainly talks about increased range of motion and injury prevention.
So articles out there do mention it helps and it doesn’t.
My conclusion, take 3-5 minutes after a workout and stretch, jeez.
If that is the article I read (if not there was another one recently published) it made the point that a likely reason that many studies fail to demonstrate a preventative effect of stretching on injury is that they typically look at all injuries. Obviously, some injuries like broken bones or torn ligaments are pretty unlikely to be prevented by stretching. I believe the conclusion of that study was that stretching probably does have a preventative effect on injuries like muscle strains. How stretching would impact overuse injuries or “imbalances” that cause the typical endurance athlete injuries is probably still an open question.
I started stretching 2.5 years ago on orders from my physical therapist after developing poplitial (sp?) tendinitis. 3x30 seconds per stretch: quads, hams, hip flexors, groin, upper back, up dog-down dog, and most important lower back kick overs.
I have no idea if it makes me faster. That said, I haven’t been injured since. I notice on the days when I don’t stretch after a workout I am much more sore then I am when I stretch. The lower back stuff has really helped with my bike position. Since I’ve started stretching, I got rid of all the spacers on my bike. I’ve never once felt pain in my lower back on a ride of any distance. So in that sense, stretching has helped me go faster by putting me in a better position on the bike and letting me stay comfortable in that position.
…19 subjects performed a 40-minute lower extremity stretching routine three times a week for 10 weeks. Their subsequent performance was compared to a control group by measuring flexibility, power (via 20-m sprint, standing long jump, vertical jump), strength (knee flexion and knee extension one-repetition maximum ), and strengthendurance (number of repetitions at 60% of 1RM for both knee flexion and knee extension). The results showed that the stretching group had significant improvements for flexibility (18.1%), standing long jump (2.3%), vertical jump (6.7%), 20-m sprint (1.3%), knee flexion 1RM (15.3%), knee extension 1RM (32.4%), knee-flexion endurance (30.4%) and knee-extension endurance (28.5%)… Med Sci Sports Exerc 2007; 39(10):1825-31(Excerpted from Peak Performance On Line)
I’m pretty sure I skimmed that article as well. Leaving aside the point that none of it’s measures of performance are measuring endurance, even the “endurance” one (I’d have to go back and look but I would think it wasn’t more than a few minutes max). I’m pretty sure that was in sedentary subjects (still to me surprising that stretching alone gave that kind of performance gain), but I think the real question of interest here would be does a stretching program imposed on an endurance training program lead to less injuries or improved performance. I think these are open questions with the answers likely depending on which endurance activity you’re performing.
…the real question of interest here would be does a stretching program imposed on an endurance training program lead to less injuries or improved performance…
Certainly seems to be the bottom line. However, there are several reasons that hard and fast evidence may be a long time coming. Two obvious ones that pop to mind:
Studying “injury prevention” favors siting more obvious (maybe even mainly traumatic) injuries rather than overuse injuries or chronic discomfort that develop over a longer period. As one of my ortho surgeons said, these studies tend to favor a grad student’s schedule.
Studies are expensive. Double blind studies are especially so. Hence there is a lot of evidence for things someone can profit from, and much less conclusive evidence for (or against) things that are free–say, for example, touching our toes.
I get the idea that brandonecptis against stretching.
To All:
I did take some time last night to do a little research: I’d like to prefix what I’m going to say with I follow the rule “You find what your looking for”. In other words, if I was biased towards stretching I would gravitate towards the info highlighting the benefits. Now, that being said, I am biased towards the benefits of stretching. I grew up in a time where you did not begin any sports activity without 10 - 15mins of stretches combined with 10+ years of martial arts. Area’s that I know stretching had a MAJOR impact…Wrestling and Martial Arts.
What I found…Just like my opening statement…lots of different theories. Majority conclusions…skip stretching cold muscles. Warm up 1st. Probably aids in the prevention of torn ligiments and muscles in activities like Baseball, football, anything that requires a violent move. Hey…Martial Arts! It does hamper/diminish the recoil effect like jumping (only if done prior to the jump It actually benefits the jumper if it is done at the end of the training period.) It promotes blood flow to areas that usually does not get much blood flow thus aids in prevention of age related injuries and future joint problems.
Use it or lose it…If your not using your ROM your going to lose it. The body is under constant repair. Part of that process is repairing ligiments. The mirco tears that occur from regular use. It’s like a micro layer is being laid down. These new layers need to be stretched out to keep our ROM. That is why my son, after 6 weeks in a full arm cast could not fully extend his arm after the cast was removed and it required daily stretching excersizes to get his full ROM back. Same with my shoulder. Our if I skip stretches for a couple of weeks I can not reach to the same spots.
What does it do for Tri-athletes? Well…Most articles I read said…Better form = Better economy. Better flexibility = better form. Better flexibility allows you to hold better form longer. Swimming…appears to be lots of positives. High elbow and reach being the biggest. Next was ankle flex. I will say that the comment I heard from both swim instructors I had was that I had a beautiful reach.
Could you make an argument that stretching is not necessary ? (for Tri-athletes) Yes but I think IMHO that you would be taking a gamble. Not maximizing your full potential.
I am not providing any links to the articles I read…there are TONS of them out there. I spent about 3 hrs off and on last night and my conclusion is that at a min…a stretching routine consisting of 10 - 15 mins 3x/week will become a part of my regular routine.
YOGA…I’d still like to know if anyone has/is practicing yoga and what benefits they may have experienced…if any.
every endurance sports injury I’ve had (hips, knees, back) has been fixed then banished by stretching and strengthening. Why not take a few minutes after running/biking to wind down by stretching? Unless you live in the great white north you probably have to wait a few minutes after a workout to just stop sweating, well use that time to stretch instead and you may be helping prevent problems and the cost is basically nil. Why the debate?
Stretching naysayers: no benefit for swimming? come on now, you can’t be serious?
I’m in the M55-59 group and am a strong believer in the benefits of yoga practice (best done several times a week in a class) for both injury prevention and injury recovery. Tim
Swimming is a sport that requires flexibility. However, the flexibility required for swimming can be aquired through swimming with no additional stretching required. I don’t want to be a naysayer for all, but for myself I rarely stretch. I have residual flexibility/rom from years of swimming. All that flexibility was aquired w/o stretching.
I am a coach and I do not just blindly advise people I coach to not stretch. I will admit to certain positives for certain people at specific times. When asked about stretching I give both sides of the story and advise no cold stretching, warm-up first, then stretch lightly if you feel a tangible benefit, don’t overstretch, complete workout. I do not advise my athletes that stretching should be mandatory. Many world class athletes in all sports never stretch and rarely get injured. It seems stretching before exercise is big in team sports…get all the players together and stretch before the game or even before warm-up. I find this silly and misguided.
My thoughts, from having read no studies really (except the abstracts people post here), but my 20 years of being athletic, most of them as a mediocre athlete playing competitive team sports before becoming an MOP triathlete.
Warming up and cooling down is more important than stretching.
mentioned by others: stretch warm muscles, not cold muscles.
some people benefit from stretching, some don’t. i do.
if your exercise for the week includes stuff with more random movements - say, playing tennis, soccer, ultimate, basketball, etc. - then stretching is more important than if you’re just running and biking. swimming brings up its own issues, of course (esp. ankles, shoulders).
stretching after biking is key. i don’t stretch before biking, although if i’m feeling tight after 30 mins or so i’ll pull over and stretch some. but overall the more i bike the less flexibility i have in my legs.
the benefits of flexibility far exceed anything that will make you faster in triathlon. it’s about ease of movement throughout your life. it’s about playing soccer with your kids (or in my case, my nephews) and not feeling totally sluggish, or like something’s about to pop. it’s about being able to try out more… uh… ‘variations’ than you could otherwise. it’s about quality of life, which for me is more important than anything in triathlon.
I’d like to insert my 2 cents, that is probably worth much less:)
Remember that muscle activity is conducted from the brain through an electrical signal. Your muscles only contract and relax, nothing else, and this is under command from the brain. I don’t have time to post studies, but an increase in flexibility is simply moving the “stopping point” that the brain gives to a spot later in the range of motion. There is NO change in the structure of the muscle or the joint itself. The brain simple “allows” the muscle to relax more. Thus “flexibility” is …to a point…genetically determined by the joint structures. Most people NEVER even get close to their genetic potential of flexibility due to the brain putting on the brakes way too early in the ROM.
Something to think about: have you ever known a paraplegic? you could wrap there legs around there neck 3 times. What changed for them? the muscles and joints did not change…the signal to the muscles changed. The brain no longer has the ability to send a signal to those muscles. But you are not injuring the person by the huge increase in range of motion. Before being paralyzed, they could have physically moved their joints in that same amount of range, but the brain didn’t allow them to.
Point is: we are all hugely more flexible than we give ourselves credit for. Our brain is not allowing our muscles to relax if you don’t have “enough” flexibility. My interns did a study last year and we tricked 20 people into stretching farther than they thought they could just by lying to them and tricking them into a greater ROM.
You’re not changing anything when you stretch except what’s in your head. Point is, learn to relax your muscles and don’t force them to move (static stretching) which may cause injury. You need to “let go” and just move the joint where you need it to go. You might just have convinced yourself that you are inflexible…convince yourself that you are flexible!
I’m sure there may be some disagreement to this, but find a study that shows a change in muscle and/or joint structure after stretching. You can stretch farther because of your brains signal, not because of the muscle changing.
If you attack this idea, please attack the idea and not me personally. thank you:)
Yes but if this question is in relation to all 3 sports in triathlon would your answer be different? What decent swimmer does not stretch? They all do. In swimming flexibility is paramount. Stroke length is a hugh part in going fast.
I agree that, if you’re not flexible enough to perform the movement, you need to increase range of motion. In that sense, yes flexibility is “paramount.” If you can’t point your toes or extend your arm, you’re not going to do well.
My remarks were meant to counter the notion that flexibility above and beyond the range of motion requirement of a sport is beneficial or necessary. A swimmer needs to be able to point his feet – he doesn’t need to be able to put his hands flat on the ground with straight knees. The former is required – the latter is pointless.
There is a popular, but false, notion that flexibility will increase the strength or power capacity of a muscle. You know – “Long is strong”. Just because it rhymes doesn’t mean it’s true.
You correctly point out that all “decent” swimmers stretch. I would make the counterpoint that all the not-so-decent ones do, too. I don’t see much correlation between who is stretching before and after masters and what lane they’re in. If anything, I see the good swimmers hop in the pool and go, while the not-so-good swimmers are stretching and fooling around with exercise balls.
Age group triathletes all have one training handicap in common – not enough time spent doing endurance training. If somebody is trying to carve up a week of less than 10-15 hours (at most), every hour spent rolling around on a mat or in a yoga class could be better spent on a bike or running or swimming. Elites and pros who build their lives around training can do all the running, biking and swimming their bodies can handle. They still have more time left over after all that, so they go to yoga or pilates.
The rest of us should walk right past the pilates class at the gym and hop on a treadmill or stationary bike.
