Can Stretching Before a Workout Routine Help or Harm You?

Back in high school, right before gym class, our phys. Ed teachers made us perform a series of stretches that often left us feeling sore, stiff and fatigued.  I once arrived late, hoping I could join the fun and skip the warm-ups. But no such luck. A coach pulled me out of the activity and forced me to stretch out.   As it turns out, my adolescent rebellion wasn’t too far off the mark; today, many fitness experts are finding that stretches done before a workout routine can be harmful.

The assumption that holding a stretch for 30 seconds – known as a static stretch – readies your body for a productive, injury-free workout is flat out wrong.  A new study performed by researchers at University of Nevada at Las Vegas and published in the September 2008 issue of Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, examined whether typical leg stretches affected the strength and power in athletes.  They found that static stretches greatly reduced athletes muscle strength by as much as 30 percent.

“There is a neuromuscular inhibitory response to static stretching,” says Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Apparently, stretches prepare the body for specific activities.  Static stretches improve static flexibility and dynamic stretches improve dynamic flexibility, which is why it doesn’t make sense to statically stretch before such dynamic activities as running, playing tennis, and cycling.

But, you may say, static stretches prevent injuries don’t they?  No, according to Rod Pope an army physiotherapist in Australia.  Pope conducted a large study to gauge the correlation between static stretching and injury prevention. As he monitored more than 1,600 recruits over the course of a year, he found no differences in the number of injuries between those who statically stretched and those who did not.

Effective Dynamic Stretches Include Walking Lunges

Effective Dynamic Stretches Include Walking Lunges

A productive warm-up should loosen muscles and tendons to increase their ranges of motion while raising the body’s temperature. The key is to make your muscles and tendons as accommodating and compliant as possible before beginning a strenuous workout. Only dynamic stretches can achieve this.

“You will need range-of-motion exercises that activate all of the joints and connective tissue that will be needed for the task ahead,” says Terrence Mahon, a coach with Team Running USA.  Such dynamic stretches include walking lunges, jump squats, and somewhat silly moves like kicking your buttocks with your heels.

Slow jogging or recumbent cycling are also good warm-ups.  My personal trainer puts me on a stationary bike for five minutes, increasing the resistance with each consecutive minute.  As I’ve told (whined to) her many times, this is not an easy warm-up, and there are days when I actually yearn for the static stretches of high school.  The only difference is that cycling prepares me for a great workout while the stretches prepared me for sitting on the sideline bench.  Go figure.