Stretching before exercise reduces efficiency

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Speaking of stretching, does anyone else here have epicly tight hamstrings? Like sitting with my legs out and making a 90 degree angle has always been my limit for stretching which seems nuts compared to normal toe-touching people. On the other hand I've heard that helps sprinting which would explain why I was as fast as anyone on the football team despite sitting 90% of the time. Which then makes me wonder how much of that is genetic and how much is from sitting. It'd certainly be amusing if the sedentary were gaining a propensity for sprinting, albeit for very short durations.

 

[Mussels]

Speaking of stretching, does anyone else here have epicly tight hamstrings? Like sitting with my legs out and making a 90 degree angle has always been my limit for stretching which seems nuts compared to normal toe-touching people. On the other hand I've heard that helps sprinting which would explain why I was as fast as anyone on the football team despite sitting 90% of the time. Which then makes me wonder how much of that is genetic and how much is from sitting. It'd certainly be amusing if the sedentary were gaining a propensity for sprinting, albeit for very short durations.

zombies.

 

[Thrackan]

I've heard a study recently which covers these two camps (stretch, don't stretch) and makes perfect sense. This is in context of runners btw.

Basically, what they concluded was that changing your stretching habits increases your chance of injury. People who were used to not stretch and were started on a stretching regiment before their runs, as well as people who were used to stretching and were told to stop, both suffered from more injuries than those who kept to their habits.

In their list of arguments was the following:

Someone who doesn't stretch is more likely to do a longer, more intensive warming-up than someone who does.
Doing a more intensive warming-up, followed by stretching, increased the risk of overstretching and damaging muscles.
Doing the less intensive warmup (that the stretchers were used to) without the stretch was just too non-intensive, and increased the chance of injury as well.

So basically for runners, the credo is: if you have a regiment you feel good about, don't change it due to some article or research.

 

[qubit]

I've heard of this thing called "exercise" but have never been able to find out what it is, regardless of how much googling I do.

But seriously, I've never found the need to stretch, either. I have to confess that I'm not a physical person though and don't really push myself very hard.