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Stretch No More

When I lived in Ireland, the gym I worked out at had this wonderful stretching machine. It looked kind of liked a bicycle, and was extremely effective at extending my back and shoulder muscles that were gimped from computer use.

My father always emphasized stretching before exercise. In Ireland, I was in the minority–most of the gym users just headed straight to the weights and exercise equipment. I used to look with disdain upon my fellow gym users, but they may have been on to something:

But the study, published in New Scientist magazine. in which some recruits stretched leg muscles before exercise while others did not, found there was no difference in injury rates. Army physiotherapist Rod Pope, who led the study, told the BBC’s Today programme: “If people are stretching to prevent injury, it is a waste of time, because it does not prevent injury.”

I think I’ll keep stretching until somebody other than the Australian army recommends against it.

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Published by dbarefoot

Darren Barefoot is an author, speaker and digital strategist. He’s the co-founder of Capulet Communications, and co-author of “Friends With Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook”.

6 comments

  1. The only things I know about stretching are that: it prevents injury when done *after* exercise; stretching cold is a great way to tear muscles; ideally one should stretch after a 5-15 min. warm up, then again after the workout is complete.

  3. There seems to be quite a few studies of late, showing that stretching doesn’t help. My coach decided to put his body through the test and went for a month without stretching while continuing training. The results were extremely tight muscles and a decrease in speed and strength, so now he promotes the heck out of stretching, before and after. As Jen said, stretch after a light run. We do a lot of dynamic stretching beforehand and static stretching after.

    Good times.

  4. I agree with Jen. Your muscles need to be warm when stretching and I get the most benifit when stretching after exercise. My roommate ran 3 marathons recently and he’s all about the stretching after.

  5. DB…that’s why I do few laps around the field at before I stretch. Ultimate’s the worst for muscle strains and tears, because you stand around and then sprint for a few seconds.

    – A

  6. Andrew is the KING of stretching. You don’t need that maching Darren, you just need Andrew to give you a seminar on stretching.

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