Stretching Before Exercising Weakens Muscles

Khemisty writes "Back in grade school you were probably taught the importance of warm-up exercises, and it's likely you've continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes' warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but are actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg's muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements."

Comments

Importance of warm-up

[moro_666]

Back in the days when i was in school, warm-ups were there to avoid injuries, not to increase your performance.

By making your muscles weaker, the chance to get an injury decreases as well. People have proved over time (and quite many times) that you are able to hurt yourself with the strength of your muscles alone (ever seen those 100m sprinters falling like bricks on half way ?).

Re:Importance of warm-up

[dreamchaser]

It's like most things in that too much of even a good thing can be bad for you. It's very important to limber up before a workout, but anything can be taken to extremes.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[incripshin]

Agreed. I have had too many injuries to not stretch. I believe the point is to make your muscles and tendons a bit longer, so that when they're under stress (like during a sprint), it's more difficult to stretch them to the point of tearing. Of course having stretched out muscles means that there's a little more slack, and they won't respond as well. Just guessing, though.

Somebody I knew ran track for a division 3 college, and their coach wouldn't allow them to stretch. I still find that very strange.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

That's exactly what I thought when I read the summary. That it can reduce strength is news to me, but I always thought the importance of it was to prevent injury. And given this is a tech site, I don't see why it matters to most of the people here. Hell, most of us probably don't get enough exercise to begin with, let alone taking it to the level where performance matters.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[multisync]

That was my thought. 20 - 30 seconds is far too long to hold a stretch before exercise. A warm up should be just that - moderate activity to get the muscles ready for your workout.

When I run, I start with a brisk five minute walk, followed by some easy stretching before I begin my run, but I won't hold a stretch for more than ten seconds. You can also just stretch as you do your warm up, by walking on your toes, kicking your butt, and basically walking like you're applying for a government grant.

The 30 second stretches are for after your workout, during the "cooling off" period.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[characterZer0]

Can we please cut it out with the everybody-interested-in-technology-is-a-fat-slob jokes? And the everybody-interested-in-technology-is-socially-inept-and-has-no-luck-with-the-opposite-gender jokes? Seriously, it's getting old.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[MrNaz]

I think this entire article is a load of attention seeking BS, and I will not believe a word of it until I see a proper peer-reviewed research paper in a medical journal that debunks stretching.

While I'm sure that it is possible to overstretch a muscle, especially if you isolate one muscle and use all your opposing musculature to stretch it excessively, the implied message of this article is rubbish. There is absolutely no evidence that stretching before exercise weakens muscles (note I used the exact same phrase as the title) so long as you don't over do it.

In other news:

Breathing is bad for you!
Hyperventilating can result in a situation where you remove too much CO2 from your bloodstream leading to a failure of the breathing reflex, resulting in hypoxia and in extreme cases brain damage or death).

Exercise is bad for you!
Bodily ligaments and tendons wear out, just like any other mechanical part, so the more you use them the faster they wear out. The body does have a regenerative effect, but it is not unlimited and the deterioration of the body's ability to maintain joins manifests in arthritis and other related conditions.

Water is bad for you!
You can drown.

These articles brought to you by the Department of Attention Whores with no Sense of Truth or Accuracy.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[genner]

Can we please cut it out with the everybody-interested-in-technology-is-a-fat-slob jokes? And the everybody-interested-in-technology-is-socially-inept-and-has-no-luck-with-the-opposite-gender jokes? Seriously, it's getting old.

Yeah not everybody here is like me.
I'm special!

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Chees0rz]

I have been practicing this methodology for a while now. My highschool and college track coaches (and the assistants coming in) have preached Dynamic stretching (stretching through movement). So you do things like skipping, leg swings, high knee running, and a whole bunch of crazy things. It gets the muscles ready to move- not increase flexibility.


Increasing flexibility is for after the workout, where you hold a stretch for 20-30 seconds (for muscle memory).
Maybe I have drank too much of the koolaid, but I assume this is what the article is talking about. It's been around for a while (at least 8 years).

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like someone needs to get laid.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[anothy]

These articles brought to you by the Department of Attention Whores with no Sense of Truth or Accuracy.

what an awful acronym.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Iberian]

In weight lifting you do not want to stretch your muscles out. In anything more aerobic you want to do light stretching and at the end of both you want to completely stretch your muscles.

Your muscles are able to put forth the most when they are not all stretched out similar to an elastic band. If you stretch it out several times it starts to lose its ability to snap back as quickly. For aerobic exercise though you don't want your muscles to cramp up which they have an increased chance of doing because of the nature of the exercise and the fact you are using it consistently over a long period of time.

No muscle works well though when it is damaged so if you try to rapidly stretch it by running or jumping hard while cold you just earned yourself a pulled hammy. Weightlifting though is different and once you get into it and start lifting heavy there are not many who stretch much at all before lifting. Maybe a quick set of low weight to get warm and make sure the muscles are ready for the range of motion and demand you are about to put on them.

Lame jokes aside go to the gym and you will see this was already well known before this study.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[gsgriffin]

I agree. The truth hurts too much!

Re:Importance of warm-up

[fyngyrz]

The 30 second stretches are for after your workout, during the "cooling off" period.

That may be adequate for running, but it won't do for regimens with extreme range of motion, such as martial arts. We stretch for half an hour prior to a workout punctuated with short one-minute warm-ups every five minutes or so, and it definitely reduces injuries (which, as the GP has it, is the intent... not for "strength"... in fact, I've never heard — anywhere — that the act of stretching increases strength for the immediately succeeding session of exercise. I've been teaching martial arts for over twenty years.)

I can also tell you that if your body isn't prepared to reach an extended position, and it has to go there, either because you forced it to or someone else did, you had better have stretched first and be warmed up.

As for this line in TFS: "The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds -- known as static stretching -- primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them", the science of this has been known for many years. What happens is that the working elements of the muscle fibers are laid against each other in pairs with an intervening layer between; the more overlap, the more power can be generated because the overlapping surface area of the layer between is where the work gets done. When fibers are stretched, there is less overlap, hence the muscle can generate less power, but the muscle is longer.

Think of your forearm extended, and look at your bicep... see how it is long? Lots of fiber layers have slid against each other and now have considerably less overlap. Now move your arm to the 90 degree position at the elbow, and look at your bicep; it's bunched up, even if it isn't tense: many fiber layers are now slid to an overlapping position.

The number of fibers involved is the factor that determines the total amount of strength in your motion; high recruitment of fibers results in a strong motion, low recruitment results in a weak motion. We train to develop the ability to generate high recruitment on demand. But no matter the recruitment, if you start from a highly non-overlapped position, eg a stretched one, you'll generate less power with the stretched muscle.

This is the basis for moves like arm locks; if the arm is extended, not only is the leverage at the joint reduced, making it more difficult to close the arm against the lock, but the muscle is extended by the lock so that fiber overlap is minimal, which reduces the amount of force that can be generated by the muscle — it is literally a "double-whammy", and accounts for why a fully executed lock is so hard to exit using direct force (correct exits involve rotation of the arm or the lock itself in order to effect closure of the joint, and a good lock prevents such rotation.)

For any motion, you typically will have two muscle groups involved; the agonist, which is the muscle doing the work, and an antagonist, which is the muscle that would be responsible to reverse the motion. In the case of bending at the elbow, to close the arm, the bicep is the agonist and the triceps is the antagonist. If you are trying to open your arm, that is, extend your forearm, then the roles are reversed: The triceps is the agonist and the bicep is the antagonist. One of the key elements of controlling the force your body can generate is learning to really relax the antagonist, and again, stretching helps by teaching you what a really relaxed and extended muscle feels like; it is difficult to minimize fiber recruitment if you don't know what it feels like and the muscle isn't accustomed to that condition.

Anyway, my recommendation is that athletes ignore this report entirely; stretching significantly increases your range of motion, particularly in your ankles, legs, groin, waist, wrists, fingers, back, neck and shoulders, and to the degree that your sport requires (or risks) large range o

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this entire article is a load of attention seeking BS, and I will not believe a word of it until I see a proper peer-reviewed research paper in a medical journal that debunks stretching.

How about these:
Nelson AG, Kokkonen J, Arnall DA: Acute muscle stretching inhibits muscle strength endurance performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2005 May;19(2):338-43

Power K, Behm D, Cahill F, Carroll M, Young W: An acute bout of static stretching: effects on force and jumping performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc.2004 Aug;36(8):1389-96

Cramer JT, Housh TJ, Weir JP, Johnson GO, Coburn JW, Beck TW: The acute effects of static stretching on peak torque, mean power output, electromyography, and mechanomyography. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2005 Mar;93(5-6):530-9. Epub 2004 Dec 15

Fletcher IM, Jones B: The effect of different warm-up stretch protocols on 20 meter sprint performance in trained rugby union players. J Strength Cond Res. 2004 Nov;18(4):885-8

This is not exactly news. The studies have been showing these same results for years now.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Culture20]

It's been around for a while (at least 8 years).

Try 30+ years

Re:Importance of warm-up

[mopomi]

How could you possibly make your claim that

There is absolutely no evidence that stretching before exercise weakens muscles (note I used the exact same phrase as the title) so long as you don't over do it.

if you haven't actually read any peer-reviewed articles about it?! You do know about scholar.google.com, right? It's not that hard to check on the people interviewed in the NYTimes article. There are many papers on the subject. Yes, there is still work to be done to answer all the questions, but your ridiculous statement that there is absolutely no evidence that stretching (static) before exercise weakens muscles just shows that you haven't bothered to read about it.

Here's your spoon-fed google search with links to a few abstracts for your edification.

http://www.acsm-msse.org/pt/re/msse/abstract.00005768-200403000-00004.htm;jsessionid=JJgJGzgYVCy4qyLKzfW21kXYSGvYP3tWmM2WDyC6Nr1nvvvH7ykd!-1853705402!181195629!8091!-1

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED448119 [PDF]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9368275

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abridged/325/7362/468

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119251161/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

http://www.cjsportsmed.com/pt/re/cjsm/abstract.00042752-200409000-00004.htm;jsessionid=JJgpcrQvSRyyCn1CG2XnW4WS6vzdsmrXnhG43kmLDT1CyhhCknr9!1600976923!181195628!8091!-1

http://apt.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1519%2F1533-4287(2001)015%5B0098%3AAEOSAN%5D2.0.CO%3B2

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Chees0rz]

hence the at least!

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Anonymous Coward]

The word "acute" in the title of 3 out of 4 of those papers highlights that what I was saying, i.e., it is not stretching but over stretching that is bad for you. I don't think these papers would suggest that a rugby player get to the field and get into the scrum 20 minutes after getting out of bed and with no preceding activity.

Well done, it's not often that someone can actually cite references to prove that they missed the point.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[russotto]

Can we please cut it out with the everybody-interested-in-technology-is-a-fat-slob jokes? And the everybody-interested-in-technology-is-socially-inept-and-has-no-luck-with-the-opposite-gender jokes? Seriously, it's getting old.

Sure, we'll stop right after we stop the jokes about lawyers being unethical, plumbers showing way too much buttcrack, politicians lying, and sharks wearing frickin' lasers. (OK, that last one may not fit in)

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Anonymous Coward]

There are many papers on the subject. Yes, there is still work to be done to answer all the questions, but your ridiculous statement that there is absolutely no evidence that stretching (static) before exercise weakens muscles just shows that you haven't bothered to read about it.

There's a really subtle point that a lot of this work seems to overlook. Muscles are length dependent force generators, meaning that they'll produce more force at longer lengths. One of the things that happens during a prolonged static stretch is that the tendons creep a little, meaning that, at the same joint position, the muscle itself is at a shorter length. If you measure force, stretch, then measure force again at the same joint configuration, you're not measuring the muscle in the same configuration.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[TheModelEskimo]

As a martial artist, I now only do dynamic stretches before practice or sparring. I stopped doing *static* stretches before I spar or work out because it made me slower. My stretching coach told me the same - do the splits and stuff afterward, and do range of motion stuff (like doing light stretch kicks until you build up to your maximum range) beforehand. This is also very important in Judo, where any leg stretches you do beforehand may make your footwork slower and hence make it easier to be thrown. Dynamic stretches also have the advantage of not slowing down your heart rate before your big event.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[canadian_right]

You are wrong. A number of studies show that stretching when cold is not a good idea. As the article stated, stretching is good, AFTER, a light warm up like an easy jog for 5 to 10 minutes. Stretching when cold does not help prevent injury, and does not improve athletic performance. You should not do intense stretching before playing sports. If you need to improve flexibility do the stretching as a separate exercise on your work out days.

Stretch after warm up.
Stretch after your work-out, Athletes who stretch cold have more injuries.
Warm up, then stretch.
Stretching doesn't help beginners, too much bad for elite. (lots of pointers to articles/studies at end)
Fire Dept. says go easy on stretching, only after warm up.

I think that is enough for now. Only stretch after you warm up. Don't over do it.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[superdave80]

You must be new here.

Welcome to /., where everybody needs to get laid.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[genner]

I said special not fictional.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[ShadeOfBlue]

Actually, when they talk about the acute effects of stretching, they're talking about the immediate effects.

That is, weakened muscles are an acute effect because the effect only lasts ~30 minutes. Acute does not mean they stretched the bajeezus out of a muscle before the test.

Furthermore, you still seem to be having trouble grasping the difference between stretching, static stretching, and warming up.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[ShieldW0lf]

I've always thought about it in terms of steel cables and rubber bands.

If I tie one end of a steel cable to a load that is stuck in the mud and the other end to the back of my truck, and leave it slack, and floor my truck, I'm going to get more snapping power to dislodge the load, but I'm at higher risk of breaking the cable.

If I tie one end of a bungee cord to a load that is stuck in the mud and the other end to the back of my truck, and leave it slack, and floor my truck, the elongation is going to sap a lot of my snapping power, making it more difficult to dislodge the load, but I'm at a much lower risk of breaking the cable.

Static stretching is what puts slack into the cable. Dynamic stretching is what puts bungee into the cable.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[CaptainPatent]

Sounds like someone needs to get laid.

Just don't stretch first.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[t0rkm3]

This study is actually a late-comer to the field. This sort of study has been out for more than a few years.

There are several tricks to this.

1. Dynamic warm-ups that result in a stretch can increase force production. Dynamic flexibility and static flexibility are related but not as linked as you may think.

2. Statically stretching the antagonist to intentionally weaken allow better performance esp on "simple" exercises with one or two predominant agonists. ie Bench press

3. This topic has been a discussion at the last 4 ACSM conferences. There are several studies that point to the existence of "stretch lag period" or "tendon slack" post static stretch. The quandary at this point is how long is the "slack" period. This is especially important for athletes that tend to have problems related to tendon length such as Patella-Femoral Pain Syndrome.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Quantum Jim]

I agree with Eskimo. I'm also a martial artist (BJJ instructor), and we only do dynamic stretches before practice or sparring as well. Instead we begin with a light warm-up to (duh!) warm up the muscles. Then we train sport-specific movements as well as dynamic stretches to build muscle memory and increase flexibility. After practice we might finish with some yoga, but we got rid of the generic static stretches with no problems. Our Muay Thai instructors do the same thing at their practices. As far as I knew, the thesis of this article was common knowledge in the sports world for a while now. It has made us more flexible and faster with less occurring of injuries than when I was doing static stretches. We have some really good fighters and competitors, so I don't doubt our training methods. They seem to be working for us.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[Heymdall]

In semi-contact (kickboxing) class we're always instructed not to overstretch before the combat tournaments because that would slow us down. A warm-up is required but the stretching should be light. But as a result there are more injuries on the tournaments than on regular combat practices where we stretch a bit more.

Re:Importance of warm-up

[mopomi]

Actually, in 4x4 recovery, there's a strap called a "snatch-strap" used to pull stuck vehicles out of mud, etc. It's basically a bungee (with much less elasticity and much higher strength). You attach it to both vehicles, and the recovery vehicle gets a running start, pulls the snatch strap taught, stretching it in the process. The pulling vehicle eventually comes to a stop.

There's a bunch of energy stored in the snatch-strap, which wants to go back to its original shape. It eventually does return to its original shape, pulling either the stuck or unstuck vehicle toward the other (usually both toward a common "center"). As long as the frictional forces acting on the recovery vehicle are greater than those acting on the stuck vehicle, and the energy stored in the strap is high enough to overcome the forces acting on the stuck vehicle, the stuck vehicle will move.

This is used to avoid the dangerous situation of a cable suddenly and violently releasing its stored energy as it breaks. The snatch-strap deforms elastically while the cable deforms plastically and catastrophically.

But, yes, your analogy has some application to muscle strain. ;)

Muscle Cramps?

[eldavojohn]

Whenever I took swimming lessons as a kid, we stretched to avoid muscles cramping up in the middle of the water. I would take tired muscles over a leg cramp mid-stroke any day of the week.

Also when I lift, I would rather be a little weaker than having my arm freeze up as I lift a barbell over my head.

I don't think I ever had the impression that stretching makes me stronger, just protects me from cramps and overextending. Has this been proven/disproven? I'd be shocked to see so many years of sports medicine overturned by something that could be easily determined through statistics acquired by anyone working out.

Re:Muscle Cramps?

[Kijori]

Absolutely agree with everything you've posted - I was going to say the same thing. To add to that though, this isn't new at all. My exercise book from 2-3 years ago has exactly the same information - stretching will reduce performance, but it's still worth it.

Warm-up still important

[ShadeOfBlue]

For those of you who don't RTFA, the summary could be misleading. TFA doesn't imply it's best to just jump straight into exercising. Rather you still need to do some warm-up activity (light jogging, jumping jacks, etc..), and then do dynamic stretches, rather than static stretches. What dynamic stretches you should do depends on your sport.

Furthermore, since this is slashdot, you all probably have terrible posture stemming from over-tight hip-flexors and internally rotated shoulders. Static stretching can be good to loosen the problem muscles. People who bother to stretch usually focus way to much on the hamstrings, when the hip flexors are much more likely to be the problem.

Re:Warm-up still important

[sdpuppy]

Exactly. Unfortunately the basic principles are rarely stated; once you understand this simple principle all this advice makes sense:

1) You want to stretch ONLY muscle, rarely tendon (muscle to bone connections), and NEVER ligament (holds bones together). Think of a mechanical coupling such as ball joints in a car (yes! a car analogy!.:-) ) If they are tight, forces are transmitted as they should be. Loose couplings - not only do your teeth get rattled, but parts tend to wear out.

Back to the meat world, for example, if your collateral ligaments (sides of knee) are loose, then there is side to side play in your knee joint, your movements are less efficient, forces are applied in directions which they're not supposed to leading to injuries. (also think of football and ACL/PCL - knee ligament injuries) Now if your leg tendons are loose, your leg muscles will be like a stretched out string - less efficient in the full range of motion.

2) You want to stretch warmed up muscle, not cold, since cold will resist the movement. If you stretch cold, you will tend to stretch tendon & ligament and your body will resist more (see #1)

The trend in Yoga now is to work on positions after warm up. In the past (at least from my POV) they discouraged "pushing" into positions so injuries were averted - by warming up both by exercise (some forms combine Pilates type movements) and sometimes external heat, attaining flexibility is made more efficient and less prone to injury.
An amazing book to read on the subject of flexibility is "Science of Flexibility" by Alter. It has probably all you want to know on the subject.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Flexibility-Michael-J-Alter/dp/0736048987

Depends on your sport

[HogGeek]

Based on what I've read, stretching/warm-up should be based on your sport.

For instance, I coach a hockey team, and any stretching is considered bad, as it loosens the tendons, and you are now more prone to injury because "things" can move too far...

We (the team) do simple warm-ups.

Note to self: read linked articles before posting!

[K3ba]

Most of the negative comment posters below obviously didn't take the time to read the linked article.

Some types of stretching are good, some are bad. The article explains the differences quite well and still recommends that some stretching takes place...

...Revolution!

[Emb3rz]

I'm a huge fan of the Dance Dance Revolution games. I've ranked highly in both tournaments that I was able to participate in.

One thing that I've noticed over time is that I usually play better on the second and third songs of my first set than I do for the rest of the night. I don't know if this is related to fatigue (the total lack thereof for the first few songs) or if the so-called muscle stiffness makes the actions more deliberate (and perhaps more precise as a result).

That said, if I'm going to play the most difficult songs (MaXXes, PSMO, etc) then I definitely need a good warmup. This almost never involves stretching.

20-30 sec?

[rzei]

Where did that come from? I've been taught since being a 6 year old hockey master that you should always do warm up, and then stretch max 10 seconds per muscle...

Right after exercise, you shouldn't stretch as your muscles should be full of blood, you don't want to rip them open – you should walk or do something light and go to sauna.

2-3 hrs after exercise you should do those 20-40 sec stretches.

Weakening the muscles is a good thing

[teebes]

If you're lifting, what you want to do is to weaken your muscles enough for them to rebuild stronger. So again, starting with a weaker muscle just means that it's easier to get to the point you want. Also, as has already been mentioned, the main point is that it decreases the chance of injury. In short, keep stretching!

Re:Performance vs. Health

[pthisis]

The "stretching reduces injury" canard has been disproven in study after study. Warming up may have some benefit, but stretching isn't the way to go if you're worried about injuries.

One study is at http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/stretching-exercises.html

As it turned out, stretching during warm-up had no statistically significant effect on the risk of injury, either for soft-tissue problems or bony disorders...Although pre-exercise stretching was totally unimportant from an injury standpoint, other easy-to-determine factors actually did a decent job of prognosticating who would get hurt. For example, age was a good predictor of injury (the older the athlete, the higher the injury frequency)...In addition, 20-metre shuttle-run time was an outstanding predictor (the faster the time, the lower the risk of injury), a relationship which suggested that overall fitness -- not the presence or absence of pre-workout stretching -- had the paramount influence on injury occurrence

Not new information.

[NoPantsJim]

Google "Pavel Tsatsouline" or just go to dragondoor.com. The Russians have known about stuff like this for decades. If you're looking to lose the nerd physique like I did, pickup some kettlebells from the site. Mine are worth their weight in gold.

Re:Not new information.

[mpoulton]

...pickup some kettlebells from the site. Mine are worth their weight in gold.

Wow! At today's gold price, that's $425,231 for a 35lb kettlebell. I value my physique, but I would have to think twice about that...

Re:Performance vs. Health

[Timothy Brownawell]

Stretching might be bad for performance, but it does reduce injury.

From TFA:

Controversy remains about the extent to which dynamic warm-ups prevent injury. But studies have been increasingly clear that static stretching alone before exercise does little or nothing to help. The largest study has been done on military recruits; results showed that an almost equal number of subjects developed lower-limb injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, etc.), regardless of whether they had performed static stretches before training sessions.

This is old, old news.

[hey!]

The deleterious effect of static stretching on muscle power has been known for years.

It's not a matter of static stretching being "bad for you", what's "bad for you" depends on context. Static stretching is a developmental exercise. You wouldn't go to the weight room for serious strength training before a competition, and the same applies to static stretching.

  Well coached athletes have been doing the kind of warm-up exercises described in the article for years, it's just that the word hasn't trickled down.

MOD Parent UP

[Don_dumb]

Agreed. In the UK in the nineties we were taught to warm up and then to hold a stretch for 8-10 seconds (it was really just 8 but 10 was taught as it was 'easier' to remember). This hasn't really changed in gym practice, although some sports coaching has embraced dynamic stretches. Personally I have tried dynamic stretching and found that it didn't go far enough. It possibly doesn't help that I swear by static stretching (after warming up and at the end of exercise) and am quite limber in many areas.

The 20+ second stretches were never taught, it was 16 post exercise.

Now I know there is a lot of evidence to suggest that pre-exercise stretches are not-necessary but personal preference. I personally would not do anything that puts my joints to the limit (such as kicking or dumbbell flys, etc) without stretching the relevant muscles beforehand. I guess the principle for me is that a static stretch, takes the muscle further than the acutal action and therefore loosens the hamstrings et al so they don't snap when used in anger.

The problem many people have is that they stretch when cold and that is simply counter productive or just plain dangerous.

Re:Exercise? What's that?

[noidentity]

Basement-dwelling nerds rejoice worldwide at this long-overdue vindication of their muscle-enhancement regimen.

Please RTFA

[Timothy Brownawell]

TFA is not saying that warm-ups are bad, it actually says that they're good. What it does say, is that just stretching is not a proper warm-up. A proper warm-up has light exercise to make you, well, warm. It also says that "stretch and hold" is bad, but exaggerated movements ("dynamic stretching") are good.

Public Education Conspiracy

[Migraineman]

I knew it! All those required "stretching" exercises in high-school PE are just designed to make you weaker and easier to control. Y'all laughed at me ... and pushed me around ... and beat me up ... and took my lunch money ... but I was right! Dammit!

bad assumption

[J05H]

static stretching is not for warming up before athletic performance - it is for increasing flexibility. Of course it would result in weaker muscle output - the goal of that kind of stretch is to slightly pull the muscle - similar in effect to muscle-tearing during a heavy weights workout - the torn/stretched muscle then should be given the opportunity to heal in it's new configuration.

Again, it's not supposed to generate more muscle power.

To properly warm up for a game or athletic performance, you want to stretch some but mostly do repetitive movement. Start small and build up to wider movements. Also for raw power, don't discount heart rate and oxygen uptake - being "up to speed" on heart is in many situations more important than warm muscles.

Less power, more point?

[PJ The Womble]

This seems a little like saying: "thinking it through before posting lowers the chance of getting every last random rambling thought onto a forum". Sure, there are *less* words there, but they're more useful.

Missing the point entirely...

[Dallas Caley]

I think the author of this article has completely missed the point of stretching. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with increasing or decreasing your overall muscle strength. Additionally it has nothing to do with preventing injury or warming up either. In actuality stretching for humans is the same thing as frogs inflating their bellys. It is solely to attract the opposite sex.

Study after study has proven than men who stretch their forarms (also known as guns) in front of women have a greater likelyhood of mating. It's a known fact also that women who do yoga are more likely to excel in the reproductive arts.

A more interesting study would be the effect of biker shorts on your ability to determine potential danger (such as a speeding car) or how fanny packs have led to retardation and uneven hair growth (re. the mullet)

Seems like a perfectly sensible article to me

[DaPhilistine]

This confirms what I'd already been practising for a while now through personal experience and what I'd read/heard.

When it comes to doing martial arts classes and other exercises, I typically start with some deep breathing for 1-3 mins (preferably while walking to the class), then follow with a light 50-60% warm up. I have stretched cold before exercise in the past, but it kept causing injuries (I obviously stopped doing that). Then after I finish a class I'll cool down with some stretches while my muscles are warm - which I find I can stretch much further.

I'm over 30 now and have recently re-started capoeira (so pretty hard for work me), and these high effort classes are getting much harder since I've been out of training for a few years. Getting back in to it I've found (casual observation, no science here ;-) that after a combination of a deep breathing and a light warm up, my ability to train is increased substantially. I'm not exaggerating at all. We're talking the difference between having to stop constantly and feeling like passing out, and carrying on a class just at the edge of my comfort zone. Most of the article seems to back this experience up with some science, which I'm glad about :-)

As a battered ex-goalie

[Tiger]

I used to have a daily (static) stretch routine that has lapsed since I hung up my skates, so I'm looking at this article with interest and trying to match them against my own observations and routine:

1. The purpose of the stretching routine was to allow the muscles to lengthen and reduce the chance of injury that wild flailing contortions on a slippery surface exposes you to.

TFA suggests that muscles are "weakened" (in terms of performance) but does not say that those muscles have been exposed to injury risk. Also, the parts of my body I'm protecting are the non-stretchy bits of ligament and tendon that may see too much load if muscles are too tight.

2. The routine was a set of systematic, static stretches held for a minimum of 30 seconds. But the whole set was always, always, always preceded by a light warmup: jogging, a few pushups, etc.

This is borne out by the article, which said (surprise!) that warmed up muscles work better. In fact, cold muscles are just hard to stretch, and you risk injuring yourself right there.

Dynamic stretching was something I was aware of at the time, but it came with a bit of a warning-- if you don't know what you're doing with exercises that stretch muscles that are under tension, or you're not in peak physical shape, you can hurt yourself pretty fast.

It does sound like there's been progress in this area... it was very hard to find information on "how to do effective dynamic stretching without breaking yourself" five years ago.

Now... as for the "ex" part of "ex-goalie": my first knee injury was an MCL tear on a game in early summer, when I wasn't in a regular stretch routine, when I hadn't followed my regimen properly before game. That emphasizes to me that not following a stretching routine was infinitely worse than a static stretching routine. I won't comment on whether what I did do was optimal-- I suspect it could have been improved.

(FWIW it wouldn't have saved me from knee injuries #2 and #3, patella subluxations that put me out of the sport for good. Turns out I have shallow trochlear grooves and sliding kneecaps are bad if you like butterfly goaltending and dislike obscene amounts of pain.)

So best I can say is that this article's pretty inconclusive about whether static stretching is actually bad. I believe that even if it cuts your muscle output, it's still having an effect in increasing your safe range of motion, and both (a) better than no stretching and (b) more easily managed for an amateur than some potentially aggressive dynamic stretching approaches.

I've got your peer-reiviewed papers right here

[Ambitwistor]

I think this entire article is a load of attention seeking BS, and I will not believe a word of it until I see a proper peer-reviewed research paper in a medical journal that debunks stretching.

Geeze. I've noticed a certain hyper-skepticism among Slashdotters. Please note that the New York Times is not known for trumping up pseudoscience with no support in the literature.

Others have responded that the article is not "debunking stretching", just pointing out problems with certain kinds of stretching. And at least one other poster gave references, some of whom involved people interviewed for TFA. More specifically with respect to the studies mentioned in TFA:

The article cites Duane Knudson, a kinesiology professor at CSU. Peer reviewed research paper.

The article mentions a Las Vegas stretching study. Peer reviewed research paper.

The article mentions Malachy McHugh, a researcher in NYC. Peer reviewed research paper.

The article mentions a collegiate volleyball study. Peer reviewed research paper.

And so on.

Breathing causes cancer Re:Importance of warm-up

[WolfWithoutAClause]

Actually, yeah, oxygen causes cancer.

There's a graph of incidence of cancer against oxygen concentration. As you increase the oxygen percentage of the air, the rate of cancer goes up, and if you reduce it, it goes down. If you reduce it too far, you die.

However, if you plot the curve back to the 0% oxygen axis you find that there's a certain amount of cancer still there- that's the cancer due to other causes than oxygen.

But there's a gap- some of the cancer that you get due to the normal oxygen levels you need to live raises the cancer rate measurably.

So, it looks like oxygen causes cancer, and hence so does breathing!!!

Dude, that's not how muscles work

[sam_vilain]

What's this "fibres overlapping" rubbish? Muscles change shape because the cells change shape, not the fibres. Go read an anatomy book.