so-called tight muscles. Go to any fitness center and you’ll see that
many people do it. Many think if they can touch their toes, they’re fit.
There’s very little, if any, scientific information demonstrating
that static stretching is beneficial, especially the way most people do
it. As a matter of fact, there’s quite a bit of evidence showing it’s
harmful. One of the most common reasons people give for stretching
is injury prevention. But studies show static stretching can actually
increase the risk of injury! One of many examples given is the ham-
string muscle group. It is both the most frequently injured muscle and
the most stretched.
Many people need flexibility, and I often recommend that increas-
es in flexibility be made to prevent injury and create a more stable
physical body. This increased flexibility can be accomplished with a
proper warm-up, rather than with stretching. Even patients with
debilitating arthritis can improve flexibility with an easy aerobic
warm-up of 15 minutes, and be as flexible as if they had stretched,
without the risk. Before addressing the potential dangers, I’d like to
talk about the two different kinds of stretching, referred to as static
and ballistic.
Static Stretching
This is a very slow, deliberate movement, lightly stretching a muscle
and holding it unchanged for up to 30 seconds. When properly done,
static stretching promotes relaxation of the muscle fibers being
stretched. But static stretching requires that each muscle group
throughout the body be sequentially repeated three to four times. It
also demands that the activity be done slowly. Note some of the key
words: slow, deliberate, lightly stretched. And also note the need to
stretch each muscle group three to four times. All this takes time and
discipline, which most people just don’t think they have or don’t
make time for. There are two different types of static stretching, active
and passive:
- Active stretchingis safer than passive and is accom-
plished by contracting the antagonist muscle (the one
opposite the muscle you’re stretching). For example, to
actively stretch the hamstring muscles, the quadriceps
are contracted.
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