For A Better Workout Don’t Stretch Beforehand

One thing I can often remember doing in high school physical education classes is stretching before we did any vigorous exercise.  We had to “stretch those muscles out!” they said, or we might hurt ourselves. Now there are studies showing that just the opposite might be true. From MSNBC

Want a better workout? Then don’t stretch beforehand, some experts say.

Many people take it for granted that they should start their exercise routines with some stretching on the spot, perhaps hoping it will loosen them up for their workout. Most fitness experts now agree this kind of static stretching before exercise is not just counter-productive, but potentially harmful.

Traditional stretches, like when people bend over to touch their toes or stretch their legs on a fence, often cause the muscles to tighten rather than relax — exactly the opposite of what is needed for physical activity.

Experts say it is like extending a rubber band to its limit. When people stretch to the maximum, they are more likely to pull a muscle.

“We have developed this idea of static stretching at exactly the wrong time,” said Kieran O’Sullivan, an exercise expert at the University of Limerick in Ireland, who has studied various types of stretching and their impact on athletes.

When you stretch before exercising, your body may think it’s at risk of being overstretched. It compensates by contracting and becoming more tense. That means you aren’t able to move as fast or as freely, making you more likely to get hurt.

I know at times I have done exactly what they’re saying, stretching my legs out before I go running in the hopes that I’ll be a bit more loose. Guess I know why it didn’t completely always work as I had hoped now. Stretching can actually cause your muscles to tighten.

The article goes on to talk about how stretching hasn’t really been shown to decrease injury either.

experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention combed through more than 100 papers looking at stretching studies, they found people who stretched before exercise were no less likely to suffer injuries such as a pulled muscle, which the increased flexibility from stretching is supposed to prevent.

So what are you supposed to do if you’re not supposed to stretch before working out?

Instead of stretching, many experts recommend warming up with a light jog or sport-specific exercise, like kicking for football or a few serves for tennis. That type of light movement increases the heart rate and blood flow to the muscles, warming up the body temperature.

“This allows you to approach your full range of motion, but in a very controlled way,” said Dr. Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery and spine surgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center and former physician for the U.S. Tennis Open. Cohen said elite athletes in all sports are increasingly ditching static stretching and using other warm-up techniques instead.

But the message has yet to trickle down to legions of joggers and recreational athletes. “This is classic, old-school stretching that has been done for generations,” Cohen said. “It’s going to be very hard to convince people to start doing something different.”

So start out with a jog, or other moderate physical activity to get you warmed up.

What do you think of this updated news? Do you still stretch? Will this news change your strategy?

photo credit: Tobyotter