USATF - Stretching Doesn't Help Reduce Injuries But If You Already Stretch, Keep Doing It

funny - in that long article Moore wrote about Moorcroft back in around 1983, the coach was portrayed as wildly idiosyncratic and one example was how he did not recommend stretching. Moorcroft could only reach just below his knees. But ran 13 dead.

The stretching/non-stretching debate is so fascinating to me - in the 80s everyone believed it was 100% necessary. Many still do. But the science just isn't there. What else do we do that will be proved nonsensical?

agip wrote:

What else do we do that will be proved nonsensical?

Well, I'm not sure about "nonsensical," but the overemphasis that core work receives (from some) will probably make us smile, twenty years from now.

What if you cannot comfortably complete a full stride? Bekele's ROM has to beat that of most people. If poor flexibility inhibited this stride, he wouldn't be able to run as well.

Call me old fashioned, but I'm having a hard time believing that there is no difference in the injury rates between people on high and low mileage, or young vs. old.

SaImon wrote:

What if you cannot comfortably complete a full stride? Bekele's ROM has to beat that of most people. If poor flexibility inhibited this stride, he wouldn't be able to run as well.

Actually I'm having a hard time believing this article in general. My injury rate SKYROCKETED precisely because I wasn't flexible at all. (Not because I wasn't stretching, but for other reasons) I lost 4 months. As soon as I started a serious stretching regimen, the pain left. And the more flexible I became, the faster I could run.

In Question wrote:

SaImon wrote:

What if you cannot comfortably complete a full stride? Bekele's ROM has to beat that of most people. If poor flexibility inhibited this stride, he wouldn't be able to run as well.

Actually I'm having a hard time believing this article in general. My injury rate SKYROCKETED precisely because I wasn't flexible at all. (Not because I wasn't stretching, but for other reasons) I lost 4 months. As soon as I started a serious stretching regimen, the pain left. And the more flexible I became, the faster I could run.

**********************

well, that is anecdotal, while this study at leasts seems to be scientific.

On the anecdotal side, I stretched all through HS and was quite injury prone. I haven't stretched for 30 years and have had one injury in the last 10 years. Sure, there are many other variables. That's why the scientific method in this study is so valuable.

rojo wrote:

Interesting study released today:

http://www.letsrun.com/2010/stretch-0820.php

I'll let those of you smarter than me tell me what it all means.

Japanese Bomb Pearl Harbor!

malmo wrote:

Japanese Bomb Pearl Harbor!

Germans

Is there much of a surprise here?

Stretching before a workout has already been shown to be of little use in increasing flexibility.

Furthermore, a common assumption is that there is an optimal flexibility for a given activity. If you make everyone in a group stretch, then some may have reduced risk but others end up with increased risk, so if the numbers in each group are roughly the same, there is no net change in risk to the group.

That doesn't mean there wouldn't be a change for some individuals. It is likely that those who were already stretching we doing so because they benefited from it, so it's not surprising that a lack of stretching negatively affected them.

It would have been interesting to see if there was a statistically significant increase in injury rates among those who never stretched prior to the study.

This study also doesn't address whether stretching is effective at improving recovery from workouts, which I think is probably a more common reason runners stretch. If it makes you feel better, I think stretching would be desirable regardless of whether it reduces the likelihood of injury or not.

Scientists studying stretching have come up with only "psychology" as reason to stretch, and this study seems to confirm this. People who have been stretching seem to want to believe there is a benefit. But there seems to be no scientific basis for the belief.

It would have been more useful to compare:

--Injury rates for stretching with dynamic warmups focusing on ROM.

--Race performance following static stretching and dynamic warmups, given that it has been been demonstrated that static stretching reduces performance of higher power activities (sprinting and bench press have been published) for 30-60 minutes after static stretching.

rojo wrote:

Interesting study released today:

http://www.letsrun.com/2010/stretch-0820.php

I'll let those of you smarter than me tell me what it all means.

Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria(see below), one can see that this study is not targeting the competitive athlete. Unless they drill down to the serious runner subset, the results are meaningless for that group.

5.1 Inclusion Criteria

Applicants will be provided a test assignment and invited to participate if they satisfy all of the following criteria:

13 years of age or older

Willing to commit to either a pre-run stretch or no stretch prior to their current running routine

Provide an informed consent to participate in the study

Current running routine is at least 10 miles per week

5.2 Exclusion Criteria

Applicants will be excluded from the study if they satisfy any of the following criteria:

Have suffered any injury impeding their ability to run at any point within 6 weeks prior to randomization.

Plan to stop running at least ten miles per week at any time between randomization and 3 months post-randomization.

"willing to commit to a pre-run stretch" I don't know anyone who stretches very much before they run. Most stretching I have seen is after the run when the muscles are loose and supple.

If this study is based on pre-run, it is a farce. No one should stretch cold muscles. Even my dog knows that.

Yeah, who cares about pre-run stretching routines, most serious runners already know not to do static stretching pre-run, what would be interesting is a dynamic warmup or say, an evening stretching routine's effect on injuries versus no evening stretching routine. And brojos, please change the headline, it's awfully misleading, it should read: "PRE-RUN stretching doesn't reduce injuries". Big difference as i don;t think many people static-stretch pre-run much these days.

I would have liked to have seen the study on POST-run stretching. I post-run stretch everyday. (I remember one of my h.s. runners saying her post-run stretching felt like a "massage.")

As someone else said, PRE-run stretching has already been shown to reduce performance by 4%. I suspect a lot of NOVICE runners start out too fast & get injuried. (Think about how slow, say, the Kenyans are supposed to start their runs.)

I would have liked to have seen a study on the effects of DYNAMIC stretching before running!

This is anecdotal rather than scientific, but if you have a niggle, it pays to stretch it out every time rather than let it get worse. I would like to see a study on stretching that doesn't take the machine gun approach.

SaImon wrote:

What if you cannot comfortably complete a full stride? Bekele's ROM has to beat that of most people. If poor flexibility inhibited this stride, he wouldn't be able to run as well.

I wish runners would learn how to stretch properly regardless of when they do it. Coaches are responsible for this, THEY do not know how to stretch properly, what the proper form is so their athletes stretch in strange ways that offer no benefits at all. I have seen girls pull their leg up behind them in a supposed quad stretch, and then rotate their hip and get their foot up by their shoulder. What? Or someone will bend over and NOT hinge at the hip but use their back to get down towards the ground. No wonder they have back issues.

Runners need to move in different planes, lateral especially. Which they rarely do.

Almost every team would benefit from learning proper form from a specialist, which could even be their local group fitness instructor.

And those stupid stupid group circle stretches! Get rid of them! If you aren't paying attention or doing it right, it is a complete waste of time!

coach d wrote:

Scientists studying stretching have come up with only "psychology" as reason to stretch, and this study seems to confirm this. People who have been stretching seem to want to believe there is a benefit. But there seems to be no scientific basis for the belief.

You mean placebo effect. The mind IS powerful, even if there's no physiological benefit.

Problems with STATIC stretching.

I may reduce a muscle explosiveness, thus reducing force production, thus reducing speed. IE: If you stretch a lot before a race you are probably making yourself slower.

Runners and athletes alike need a certain amount of tightness in order to perform. The problem is when this overtightness creates muscle imbalances. Even distance runners and most athletes are fairly sedentary for 90% of the day. Living at these two extremes can cause problems.

A flexibility program for an athlete then should focus on a functional range of motion for that specific sport. It should focus on common problem areas in the absense of better techniques. So, if you can't afford ART, you can't afford a massage for those calves and hip flexors that are chronically stiff from micro-trauma then some sort of flexibility program is needed.

In fact a better flexibility may be some sort of dynamic stretching or even loaded stretching. The best stretch I have ever gotten for my calves was from a loaded calf machine. The most functional stretch for the hip flexors may be a walking lunging varition (elbow to instep).

Being 'stiff' really shouldn't effect getting injured or not unless you're already injured. Most injuries occur in a fatigued state at the end of long week of training or long run. Few injuries occur in the beginning of a run when things are the most 'stiff'.

Also, lack of a proper warm-up, especially as we get older (past say 25) is a huge contributor to injuries. Runners need to learn NOT to go out the door at 6:00 pace. Perform leg swings, walking lunges, butt kicks, high knees...all the things we do to warm-up for a race you should do to warm-up for every run. Then start SLOWLY for the first mile and go from there.

Alan

Please note that the study addressed the effect of a 3 minute pre-run stretch comprised of , not the role of flexibility per se. The results seem robust with respect to the narrow hypothesis: a particular 3 min stretch routine will reduce injury rate. Answer- no support for that hypothesis.

That seems a relevant hypothesis since a 3 min cursory stretch is exactly what a great many runners do.

However, results should not be over-interpreted to suggest that flexibility is not protective of injury. Flexibility may not be much changed by 3 minutes of a "typical runner's stretch routine" (paraphrasing). It may be that improvement in flexibility/ROM (from a different stretching routine or other activities) might reduce injuries. That would be a different hypothesis.