Stretching, especially the static reach-and-hold kind we've previously suggested was all wrong, had virtually no effect on injury prevention in a study of 1,400 runners, ages 13 to over 60. Not only that, but stretching could actually hurt your workout.


You're Stretching Wrong Before Workouts We all know that you're supposed to get in a good, long stretch before a workout, right?… Read more

Image by lululemon athletica.

A new study from USA Track and Field was the result of a fairly huge undertaking, splitting up the 1,400 participants into stretch and no-stretch groups for three months of reporting on their running. The stretchers had to hold basic poses for 20 seconds that exercised their calf, hamstring and quadriceps muscles. The results?

About 16 percent of the group that didn't stretch were hobbled badly enough to miss training for at least a week (the researchers' definition of a running injury), while about 16 percent of the group that did stretch were laid up for at least a week. The percentages, in other words, were virtually identical. Static stretching had proved to be a wash in terms of protecting against injury. It "neither prevented nor induced injury when compared with not stretching before running," the study's authors concluded


Static stretching, in fact, could make your muscles tighter before a run, researchers suggested, as your body reacts to your manual attempts to lengthen them.

Then again, the New York Times' follow-ups with researchers suggest that, if you're currently stretching before a workout, you shouldn't quit cold turkey. Changing up a habitual physical habit, especially before an activity as injury-prone as running, could be tempting fate. Any changes to your routine, including a switch to the "dynamic stretching" explained in the full write-up, should be undertaken gradually. And if stretching doesn't feel like a hindrance, and makes for a relaxing warm-up period for you, it's not all that harmful to keep doing it.

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Where do you fall in the seemingly endless stretch or no-stretch exercisers' debate? What stretches have worked for your own routine?

Phys Ed: Does Stretching Before Running Prevent Injuries? [NYTimes.com]