Does Stretching Really Work?
by: Manny Aragon
Over the years there has been some debate over the effectiveness of stretching to improve flexibility, prevent injury, and more importantly, physical performance. In fact, its become quite a touchy subject amongst various researchers, health professionals, and athletic professionals. Ask any one of them and you’re sure to get an opinionated answer.
What the article’s author failed to include was that while static stretching (isolated stretching without movement or antagonist muscle contraction) actually results in lower performance and does not show injury prevention effects, several of the other types of stretching do show very tangible benefits.
Active stretching, dynamic stretching and pandiculation, all show various benefits from performance improvement, improved tissue health, improved cardiovascular health, and injury prevention amongst others. Lets go over the various types of stretching and their applications. (Definitions taken from http://web.mit.edu/tkd/stretch/stretching_4.html – SEC33)
Passive stretching-
“Passive stretching is also referred to as relaxed stretching, and as static-passive stretching. A passive stretch is one where you assume a position and hold it with some other part of your body, or with the assistance of a partner or some other apparatus. For example, bringing your leg up high and then holding it there with your hand. The splits is an example of a passive stretch (in this case the floor is the “apparatus” that you use to maintain your extended position).
Slow, relaxed stretching is useful in relieving spasms in muscles that are healing after an injury. Obviously, you should check with your doctor first to see if it is okay to attempt to stretch the injured muscles (see section Pain and Discomfort).
Relaxed stretching is also very good for “cooling down” after a workout and helps reduce post-workout muscle fatigue, and soreness. See section Cooling Down.”
NOTE: while passive stretching doesn’t improve performance or injury prevention when done before exercise, it does have benefits as stated above. In the extreme (as seen in this video), passive stretching can be very destructive to the joints and myofascial tissue leading to life long issues.
Active Stretching-
“Active stretching is also referred to as static-active stretching. An active stretch is one where you assume a position and then hold it there with no assistance other than using the strength of your agonist muscles (see section Cooperating Muscle Groups). For example, bringing your leg up high and then holding it there without anything (other than your leg muscles themselves) to keep the leg in that extended position. The tension of the agonists in an active stretch helps to relax the muscles being stretched (the antagonists) by reciprocal inhibition (see section Reciprocal Inhibition).
Active stretching increases active flexibility and strengthens the agonistic muscles. Active stretches are usually quite difficult to hold and maintain for more than 10 seconds and rarely need to be held any longer than 15 seconds.
Many of the movements (or stretches) found in various forms of yoga are active stretches.”
NOTE: I use various types of active stretching prior to my workouts and often after. Alternatively, I use active stretching routines for various aches and pains that may arise throughout the day. Active stretching is the type I teach my clients in session and in my experience it is the most widely useful form of stretching.
What is important to note about active stretching is that it is the safest type of stretching as the joints are supported by the agonist muscle groups contraction rather than other types of stretching where the joints may be at risk. In this example of active stretching please note that both of my quads are engaged throughout the stretch.
Dynamic Stretching-
“Dynamic stretching, according to Kurz, “involves moving parts of your body and gradually increasing reach, speed of movement, or both.” Do not confuse dynamic stretching with ballistic stretching! Dynamic stretching consists of controlled leg and arm swings that take you (gently!) to the limits of your range of motion. Ballistic stretches involve trying to force a part of the body beyond its range of motion. In dynamic stretches, there are no bounces or “jerky” movements. An example of dynamic stretching would be slow, controlled leg swings, arm swings, or torso twists.
Dynamic stretching improves dynamic flexibility and is quite useful as part of your warm-up for an active or aerobic workout (such as a dance or martial-arts class). See section Warming Up.
According to Kurz, dynamic stretching exercises should be performed in sets of 8-12 repetitions. Be sure to stop when and if you feel tired. Tired muscles have less elasticity which decreases the range of motion used in your movements. Continuing to exercise when you are tired serves only to reset the nervous control of your muscle length at the reduced range of motion used in the exercise (and will cause a loss of flexibility). Once you attain a maximal range of motion for a joint in any direction you should stop doing that movement during that workout. Tired and overworked muscles won’t attain a full range of motion and the muscle’s kinesthetic memory will remember the repeated shorted range of motion, which you will then have to overcome before you can make further progress.”
NOTE: Dynamic stretching is good for “warming up”. I will also use dynamic stretches during endurance exercise as the body can tighten up during extended workouts, especially as fatigue sets in. Dynamic stretching in the middle of a long run, or extended race (say ½ or full Ironman distance) can give new life to a tired and tightened body. Here is a short video example of a dynamic stretch.
Pandiculation- (quoted from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21665102)
Pandiculation is the involuntary stretching of the soft tissues, which occurs in most animal species and is associated with transitions between cyclic biological behaviors, especially the sleep-wake rhythm (Walusinski, 2006).
Yawning is considered a special case of pandiculation that affects the musculature of the mouth, respiratory system and upper spine (Baenninger, 1997). When, as often happens, yawning occurs simultaneously with pandiculation in other body regions (Bertolini and Gessa, 1981; Lehmann, 1979; Urba-Holmgren et al., 1977) the combined behavior is referred to as the stretch-yawning syndrome (SYS).
SYS has been associated with the arousal function, as it seems to reset the central nervous system to the waking state after a period of sleep and prepare the animal to respond to environmental stimuli (Walusinski, 2006). This paper explores the hypothesis that the SYS might also have an auto-regulatory role regarding the locomotor system: to maintain the animal’s ability to express coordinated and integrated movement by regularly restoring and resetting the structural and functional equilibrium of the myofascial system.
It is now recognized that the myofascial system is integrative, linking body parts, as the force of a muscle is transmitted via the fascial structures well beyond the tendonous attachments of the muscle itself (Huijing and Jaspers, 2005).
It is argued here that pandiculation might preserve the integrative role of the myofascial system by (a) developing and maintaining appropriate physiological fascial interconnections and (b) modulating the pre-stress state of the myofascial system by regularly activating the tonic musculature.”
NOTE: If you watch children and animals, they will pandiculate upon waking and upon rising. Adults do it to but to a lesser extent. The benefits of pandiculating regularly are as stated above 1) integrated movement- pandiculating helps your body parts work better together as a whole. 2) Improves circulation, brain function, and provides a feeling of overall well being. Here is a short video example of what pandiculation looks like.