It's a Stretch

What does stretching do?

Think about this question for a moment, and come up with a quick answer. Ready? Good.

When asked this question, most people will respond with something about how stretching makes your muscles more flexible or extensible. It makes sense! However, studies have shown that this actually isn’t quite what happens.

As opposed to showing a true increase in muscle length, stretching has actually been shown to simply increase a person’s tolerance for that stretch. In other words, your muscle stays at the same amount of extensibility, but the sensation of discomfort or limitation decreases, allowing us to move a bit further. Our body gets accustomed to the movement and becomes more accepting of the stretch.

Now, what does this mean for the benefits of stretching? As always, let’s look at the research. Let’s start with the easier part - Is there any harm to stretching? To answer this question, it’s important to know that there are multiple types of stretching.

Static stretching is what most people think of when they envision a stretch; you move a muscle about as far as it’s willing to go, and hold it, usually for 10-30 seconds. No increase in injury rates has been observed with this type of stretching.

Dynamic stretching is stretching with the incorporation of movement. If you’ve ever seen a runner warming up by walking in conjunction with some kind of leg kicking or swinging, this is likely what they’re doing. Dynamic stretching has also been shown as harmless, with one exception. Ballistic stretching is when you rapidly oscillate (bouncing type movements) at the full stretch position, which many people will try to do in an attempt to increase the amount of stretch that they get. This form of stretching, due to the quick movements at a muscle’s end range, has been shown to potentially cause injury.

Now, does stretching help prevent injuries? This topic is one that needs more high quality research behind it, but so far what we’ve found is that there is no strong relationship between stretching and injury prevention. That said, most people find that stretching does feel good, and dynamic stretching in particular does serve as a form of warmup (warming up in general is good for getting our muscles and cardiovascular system ready for physical activity). In short, If you like stretching and enjoy the sensation of it, keep doing it! Just be aware that over the years, stretching has likely gotten a little more credit that it deserves when it comes to keeping us pain and injury free.

Now, if stretching itself is not the best option for injury prevention, what has been shown to work? Strengthening and muscle control/balance activities have both been shown to help prevent injuries. The absolute best activities of these types will vary a bit depending on your needs and specific strengths and weaknesses, but they’re 100% worth working on to keep you moving at your best!

Do you need help developing a program to help keep you moving and injury free? Or perhaps you already have an injury that you need help recovering from? Give us a call at 239-232-8155, or send us an email at Contact@SerendipityPTW.com, and we’d love to see how we can help!