Hitch Fit Living Magazine Volume 6 - May/June 2016 | Page 37

So what in the world of muscle physiology is going on here ? Well , the goal of stretching is to lengthen a muscle . This is accomplished two ways : 1 ) by causing small amounts of damage to the muscle and 2 ) relaxing the muscle . Both of these cause muscles to be weaker . Obviously , a weaker muscle is going to be slower in a sprint , under-perform in weight lifting and decrease your jumping abilities .

After reading the previous part , those of you who never stretch are shouting out cheers of vindication while the regular “ stretchaholics ” are hanging their heads in defeat . Hold on . There ’ s still a lot to be covered . Let ’ s start with having a regular stretching routine .

Benefits of Regular Stretching

What happens if we stretch every day ? You might think that if stretching before a workout causes decreased performance , than wouldn ’ t it make sense that regular stretching would decrease performance even more ? Nope . In fact , in turns out to be quite the opposite !

Regular stretching ( described as stretching a muscle 30-60 seconds every day for 3-4 weeks ) has some pretty amazing benefits . First , you can achieve more flexibility and increased range of motion , which is probably of no surprise . More impressively however , is that you can INCREASE muscle force and contraction speed , INCREASE jump height , become FASTER in a 50 yd dash , and INCREASE muscle endurance2,4 . To summarize , regular stretching basically produces the OPPOSITE effects of stretching before an activity . Feeling better stretch addicts ?

So some explanation is probably necessary . The benefits derived from regular stretching are most likely due to stretching-induced hypertrophy . Yup , your muscles can actually get bigger , faster and stronger by only stretching ! Not exactly the same gains as resistance training , but surprising nonetheless !

Stretching For Injury Prevention

We often hear this as a common reason for stretching . You don ’ t want to be injured , so you stretch your muscles to prevent injury . Makes sense , right ? Well , let ’ s see what the research says . A review of the evidence came up with the following conclusion : “ There is not sufficient evidence to endorse or discontinue routine stretching before or after exercise to prevent injury among competitive or recreational athletes5 .” Basically , we don ’ t really know if stretching prevents injuries . The jury is still out on that one .

However , there is one interesting study done by the USA Track & Field association6 . The study took almost 1400 regular runners and placed them into one of two categories : a group that would stretch before running and a group that wouldn ’ t stretch . While they reached the conclusion that stretching had no effect on injury prevention , it did show some interesting nuggets of information . For one , if a runner previously stretched before running , but was placed in the non-stretching group , that runner was actually more likely to receive an injury ! There ’ s probably some psychological aspect of this , but that ’ s a topic for a different day . Also , while stretching or not stretching did not predict injury , several factors DID predict injuries . Those factors were an increased Body-Mass Index ( BMI ), increased age , increased weekly mileage , and history of chronic injury or injury within the previous 4 months .