Madison Callaway Professor Erin Rogers Writing 1010 16 November 2013 For many years athletes have been

accustomed to stretching prior to workouts, games, meets, competitions, matches, and other athletic performances. Coaches and athletes believe that this pre-exercise stretching prevents after-workout soreness, improves performance, and helps to eliminate injuries resulting from exercise. Many coaches have mandatory stretching sessions before workouts or competitions and refuse to allow athletes to practice or compete until stretching is complete. However, there is little research or clinical evidence to support this practice. Although it has traditionally been thought that pre-exercise stretching is beneficial, static stretching prior to exercise does not prevent after exercise soreness, injuries, or benefit athletic performance. There are two different types of stretching- static and dynamic. Dynamic stretches involve motion and include stretches such as leg lifts, butt kicks, and walking lunges. Static stretches do not involve motion during the stretch, but consist of holding a position of slight discomfort for a specified length of time. These include stretches such as toe touches and side bends. Static stretching has long been recommended before any vigorous exercise to loosen muscles and increase flexibility. Wikipedia has outlined the purpose as static stretching is used to stretch muscles while the body is at rest. It is composed of various techniques that gradually lengthen a muscle to an elongated position (to the point of discomfort) and hold that position for 30 seconds to two minutes. As different exercises are more beneficial to some sports than others, some stretches are supposedly more beneficial to swimming than to other sports. Some coaches believe that swimming specific stretches prevent muscle cramps during

practice and that the increased flexibility allows for a tighter streamline during the swim (McCauley). There has been much research performed on the effects of stretching on muscle soreness. Physiotherapist Michael Gabriel and lecturer Rob D. Herbert examined five studies involving healthy young adults. In each study, participants stretched combined with exercise. Two of the studies evaluated pre-exercise stretching, while the other three evaluated postexercise stretching. Of the 77 subjects studied, 27 were in a stretch only group, 20 were in a control only group, and 30 were assigned to both stretch and control. The pooled data of the five studies examined the ramifications of stretching on muscle soreness at intervals of 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours following exercise. 24 hours following exercise there was a minimal (0.9%) benefit. 48 hours following exercise there was a minimal detriment of 0.3%. 72 hours following exercise showed the most benefit, but still was a miniscule 1.6% (Herbert, Gabriel). Gabriel and Herbert conclude that The results of five studies (77 subjects) imply that stretching reduces soreness in the 72 hours after exercising by, on average, less than 2 mm on a 100 mm scale. Most athletes will consider effects of this magnitude too small to make stretching to prevent later muscle soreness worthwhile (Herbert, Gabriel). Although stretching produces a slight benefit to onset muscle soreness, the benefit is so minimal that the time spent stretching could be better used. While it is generally accepted that pulling a muscle during a workout can be prevented by stretching prior to exercise, most studies find that this is myth. Researchers conducted a study on 1,538 Australian Army recruits, all healthy males between the age of 17 and 35. The recruits were divided into stretch and control groups, with 735 subjects in the stretch group and 803 subjects in the control group. Each group was subject to an eleven week program of

intense physical exercise. The Australian Army recruits were chosen for the study based on high rates of lower-limb injury. The control group performed only warm-up activities prior to exercise and did not stretch. The stretch group performed the warm-ups along with stretches for six specific muscle groups in each leg. Calculations performed before the study caused researchers to expect a 25% reduction in injury risk for the stretch group. The results were surprising. There were 333 lower-limb injuries recorded. Of these, the control group reported 175 injuries or 21.79% of participants and the stretch group recorded 158 injuries or 21.50% of the participants. The study found that typical stretching prior to exercise does not produce a clinically useful reduction in injury risk. Our best estimate of the effects of stretching is that it reduces all-injury risk by 5% (Pope, Herbert, Kirwan, Graham). They further conclude that on average, each recruit would need to stretch for 3100 physical training sessions to prevent one injury an average of 260 hours of stretching would be required to prevent one injury. (Pope, Herbert, Kirwan, Graham). Given that the average person takes decades to perform 3100 physical training sessions and the general population is at lower risk of injury than the sample of recruits, the benefit of stretching is non-significant. Stretching has often been thought to increase strength and power when combined with aerobic exercise. Many coaches employ a stretching regiment as part of their workout. However, a study by Kevin Power, David Behm, Farrell Cahill, Michael Carroll, and Warren Young found that the stretching routine produced significant 9.5% and 5.4% average decrements and quadriceps maximal voluntary force and interpolated twitch technique (Power, Behm, Cahill, Carroll, Young). The decreased force and activation of the muscles remained significant at 120 minutes post stretching which means athletes are less powerful within that time frame. An additional study by GJ Wilson, AJ Murphy, and JF Pryor found

that musclulotendinous stiffness was significantly related to isometric and concentric performance but not to eccentric performance They found that the stiffer subjects performed significantly better than the more compliant subjects on both the isometric tests and the majority of the concentric tests (Wilson, Murphy, Pryor). In a study of thirteen participants, they concluded that A stiffer musculotendinous unit may facilitate such performances by improving the force production capabilities of the contractile component, due to a combination of improved length and rate of shortening, and additionally by enhancing initial force transmission (Wilson, Murphy, Pryor). Though many believe stretching to increase power, the force of a stiff muscle can be greater due to the speed of contraction of a less relaxed muscle. Coaches who still wish to include stretching as part of their pregame rituals, contrary to current research, should implement it more than two hours before competition, so as not to decrease the force and power of the muscles. Contradictory to popular belief, stretching, whether pre or post exercise, has not been found to diminish muscle soreness significantly and has even been found to increase muscle soreness 48 hours after exercise. In addition, the wide-held belief that stretching prior to exercise reduces risk of injury has been discredited. Though stretching does minimally reduce risk of injury, the incidence of injury does not differ significantly and the value of stretching is vastly overrated. The time and effort spent stretching to attain such minimal benefit makes it apparent how futile stretching is. The effect of stretching on athletic performance has been shown to be not only negligible, but actually negative. Athletes who insist on pre-competition stretching have diminished force and power for at least 120 minutes. Although stretching prior to or following exercise is widely accepted and encouraged, static stretching has not

been shown to have a significant benefit on onset muscle soreness or the risk of injury, and has been shown to have a negative effect on athletic performance.

Works Cited Herbert, Rob D., and Michael Gabriel. "Effects of Stretching before and after Exercising on Muscle Soreness and Risk of Injury: Systematic Review." NCBI. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 31 Aug. 2002. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. MacAuley, Domhnall. "Reducing Risk of Injury Due to Exercise." NCBI. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 31 Aug. 2002. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. McCauley, Wayne. "Increasing Flexibility." Increasing Flexibility. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. Pope, Rodney P., Robert Dale Herbert, John Dennis Kirwan, and Bruce James Graham. A Randomized Trial of Preexercise Stretching for Prevention of Lower-limb Injury. Blogs.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. Power, Kevin, David Behm, Farrell Cahill, Michael Carroll, and Warren Young. An Acute Bout of Static Stretching: Effects on Force and Jumping Performance. Setanta College. N.p., 2004. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. "Static Stretching Exercises." Static Stretching Exercises. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. "Static Stretching." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. Wilson, K. J., A. J. Murphy, and J. F. Pryor. "Musculotendinous Stiffness: Its Relationship to Eccentric, Isometric, and Concentric Performance." NCBI. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. Witvrouw, Eric, Nele Mahieu, Lieven Danneels, and Peter McNair. "Stretching and Injury Prevention - Springer." Stretching and Injury Prevention - Springer. N.p., 01 June 2004. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.