Forums >General Running>To stretch or not to stretch?
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I gave stretching up completely a few years ago after being plagued by numerous minor muscle pulls. Instead of stretching, I spend more time warming up and cooling down, and it's payed off big time. Since giving it up I've has zero muscle related injuries and no loss of flexibility. I work with a guy who coaches high school football and he mentioned that they no longer stretch before training or a game, but do warm up exercises instead. I've never seen an animal go through a stretching routine. If they stretch at all it's a quick one after they've been lying around. They never stretch before or after a physical activity. Stretching in my opinion is ancient technology and the only reason it's still around is that old habits and mindsets are hard to break. Tom
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As far as stretching and performance. Most professional golfers work on flexibity hours and hours a weeks. There is no way they can turn and develop power without without a more flexible core, shoulders etc. Also, some research is out there that stretching a bit after exercise enhance recovery. \
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One thing I think we can safely conclude at this point is that whatever impact stretching has it is tiny. If stretching were really bad or really good for you then even a sloppy study would find something. The fact that most studies seem to either come out slightly against or neutral towards it means stretching must do very little one way or the other. Having said all that I do some stretches for my Achilles tendon. I hurt it over training a few years ago and ended up with this habit afterwards. Since then the injury has not returned. Does stretching have anything to do with that? I have no idea. But it does not seem to be doing any harm either and I do not want to find out the hard way that injury will return sans stretching. One other thing, I have read that stretching immediately post-exercise is a bad idea. The body is hot and it is easy to stretch your way to a tear or other similar injury. Was the article backed by any real studies of the subject? Not that I recall. But it seemed reasonable (the fast road to mistaken beliefs) so I never ever do any stretching right after a workout of some sort.
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