"Of course, many of us might accept a temporary reduction in strength and even in speed if stretching protected us against injuries, as many of us have long believed that it must. But in multiple large-scale studies of military recruits during basic training, stretching before long marches and runs did not lessen the incidence of overuse injuries. In the largest of these studies, results showed that an almost equal number of soldiers developed lower-limb injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, etc. ), regardless of whether they had performed static stretches before training sessions. Similarly , in the largest study to date of everyday athletes who stretched, almost 1,400 recreational runners aged thirteen to 60-plus were assigned randomly to two groups. The first group did not stretch before their runs, while otherwise maintaining their normal workout and warm-up regimens. The second group did stretch. Both groups followed their routines for three months. At the end of that time, quite a few of the runners had missed training days due to injury , a predictable result, since running is one of the most injury-plagued sports on the planet. But there was no difference in the final pain tally between the two groups. The same percentage of those who stretched injured themselves as those who didn’t. Static stretching had been a wash in terms of protecting against injury, raising the obvious question: So why in the world do so many of us still warm up by stretching?"
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 13:33:25 +0000
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