Does stretching prevent sports injuries?
26th July | James Cosentino
You should’ve stretched!
I believe stretching is people’s least favourite activity when it comes to health and fitness. I find so many people say, ‘I should really stretch more’. It can be difficult to find the motivation, time or knowledge on how to stretch. However, stretching is promoted as an important way to reduce the risk of sporting injuries. This leads me to ask the question, does stretching reduce your risk of sports injury?
I first like to think why do we stretch? Static stretching was historically promoted to reduce the danger of exceeding tissue flexibility limits and reducing muscle soreness. Ballistic stretching was supported in athletic populations to reduce injury and increase performance. Nearly 50% of uninjured people surveyed believe that stretching contributed to them not getting injured, with only 15% of people believing that it doesn’t reduce injury. So clearly there is some confusion out there!
Why does stretching make us more flexible
Stretching, whether it is static, dynamic or PNF (commonly called contract relax stretching) is an effective way to improve flexibility. Stretching has been believed to increase muscle tissue length, allowing you to move further. Interestingly however, research has shown that stretching increases the ability to tolerate the stretching sensation, not necessarily increasing muscle length. There is also theories regarding decreased excitability of the nervous system allowing increased flexibility
Do I have to stretch to reduce injury?
At a very broad level, given the multifactorial nature of an injury, there is no association between stretching on its own and reduced injury risk.
Static and PNF stretching shows no clear effect on reducing total injury rate or overuse injuries, with insufficient evidence to give advice on dynamic stretching. There is some evidence that pre-activity stretching, whether static, dynamic or PNF, can reduce muscle injuries in sprinting and shorter distance running, but not in other endurance sports. However, it should be mentioned that these studies also had a warm up including running and movement as part of their program and compared to people doing nothing before sport. So not overwhelming evidence that stretching alone will reduce injury. Another study looked at the effect of stretching on injury rates. They found no significant reduction in risk of injury when stretching was added to a warm up or cool down routine.
Does this mean we should all stop stretching? Probably not. We need to have a more individual approach to adding stretching to our workouts. There are some people where stretching will have more benefits than others, and we must take into account our goals, sport, position, time of year and individual factors. Sports that require extreme flexibility, such as dance, may require different approaches to rugby league or soccer and warrant specific stretching programs.
Based on all this information…..CAN you stretch ? yes. Do you HAVE to stretch to reduce injury? Possibly not
Written by James Cosentino, Titled Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist @ Trend Physio, East Gosford, NSW