Topic: Applications of Stretching Very Limited

[Plastique]

I posted about stretching in the myths thread, but here's an article I think breaks it down quite well. The supposed benefits have been hammered into me most of my life, so it was quite surprising to read about this stuff the last few years.

http://saveyourself.ca/articles/stretching.php (The text on the site at default size is ridiculously large, so you might want to chop it down a bit in your browser settings.)

In a nutshell: Stretching just doesn’t have the effects that most people hope it does. Plentiful recent stretching research has shown that it doesn’t warm you up, prevent soreness or injury, enhance peformance, or physically change muscles. Although it can increase flexibility, the value of this is unclear, and no other measurable and significant benefit to stretching has ever been proven. Regardless of efficacy, stretching is inefficient, “proper” technique is controversial at best, and many key muscles are actually biomechanically impossible to stretch — like most of the quadriceps group (which runners never believe without diagrams). If there’s any hope for stretching, it might be a therapeutic effect on muscle “knots” (myofascial trigger points), but even that theory is full of problems.

[Karyn]

That site is full of useful information.

[AQB24712]

Although it can increase flexibility, the value of this is unclear, and no other measurable and significant benefit to stretching has ever been proven.

It feels good?  Surely that's a benefit?  It is for me.  And flexibility...might be valuable to me if I could ever find the nerd of my dreams.    I mean, I have the idea that good flexibility and balance (yes, I do spend a certain amount of time standing on one leg) will be helpful to me as I get older, to retain mobility and decrease the likelihood of falling.

[Karyn]

Although it can increase flexibility, the value of this is unclear, and no other measurable and significant benefit to stretching has ever been proven.

It feels good?  Surely that's a benefit?  It is for me.  And flexibility...might be valuable to me if I could ever find the nerd of my dreams.    I mean, I have the idea that good flexibility and balance (yes, I do spend a certain amount of time standing on one leg) will be helpful to me as I get older, to retain mobility and decrease the likelihood of falling.

you can have good balance and bad flexibility.

[Samhain]

I've never been flexible even after doing years of martial arts.  In fact I'm the opposite of flexible and this finally come to create a problem.  My spine erectors and hamstrings are so tight that my pelvis tilts and causes pain in certain situations.  I finally got into seeing a sports physiotherapist and he has had me doing some stretches, several times per day, to try to correct this issue.  I guess flexibility in itself may not have a benefit, but I can tell you that being inflexible can be a detriment.

[Plastique]

Although it can increase flexibility, the value of this is unclear, and no other measurable and significant benefit to stretching has ever been proven.

It feels good?  Surely that's a benefit?  It is for me.  And flexibility...might be valuable to me if I could ever find the nerd of my dreams.    I mean, I have the idea that good flexibility and balance (yes, I do spend a certain amount of time standing on one leg) will be helpful to me as I get older, to retain mobility and decrease the likelihood of falling.

Feeling good, definite benefit. Flexibility for sex? Sure. No idea about the link or otherwise between inflexibility and falls.

But the interesting (to me at least) point is that stretching isn't actually useful for many of the things it was credited for. Further, it's detrimental to certain types of performance.

[Jolimont]

I guess flexibility in itself may not have a benefit, but I can tell you that being inflexible can be a detriment.

I read somewhere that inflexible people get fewer running and basketball injuries because they can't strech their tendons, which means they don't rip them out either. will try to find the reference.