I have a confession. The last time I took the time to perform a traditional full body stretching session was in 1990 before basketball practice. Despite this, I have full motion and function of all my joints and muscles. Should I start a stretching routine? Should you?
It’s not hard to find posts online, some from reputable institutions, that suggest that stretching should be done daily to keep muscles “flexible, strong, and healthy“. Well, it’s not that simple. If stretching made you strong, yoga instructors would be the strongest people on the planet (they’re not).
Let’s dive into some details, starting with definitions:
Static Stretch: A stretch in which you stand, sit or lie still and hold a single position for a period of time, up to about 45 seconds. Hold times of 10 second to 1 minute or more can be found in the literature. Think of sitting on the floor while reaching for your toes to stretch your hamstrings.
Dynamic stretch: Controlled movements that prepare your muscles, ligaments and other soft tissues for performance through a gradual lengthening and warming sequence of motions. Think of performing repetitions of body weight squats where you gradually get lower and lower, or a slow walking lunge. These would prepare the leg muscles to perform resistive exercises like squats and step-ups.
The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) is a leading authority on athletic performance. The “NSCA’s Guide to Program Design”, published by Human Kinetics, references extensive research on stretching:
“…there is little scientific evidence to suggest that pre-event static stretching prevents activity-related injury or enhances athletic performance”
“A growing body of research evidence indicates that pre-event static stretching of the prime movers may actually have a negative effect on force production, power performance, strength, endurance, reaction time, and running speed”
Take home message:
If you enjoy the feeling of a long static stretch, then I’d suggest you do those after a workout, not before. Before workouts you should warm up the body by doing a dynamic warm-up, which are movements like the ones you will perform during your workout, but at a lower intensity. For example, a good warm-up before a leg workout would be a brisk walk, walking lunges, leg swings, high steps, and butt kicks.
What do I do? As you can see in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWGFNCcC1Gg), I would fall into the “dynamic stretch” or “dynamic warm-up” category.