All stretching is a waste of time.

Here are summaries from 73 research papers on warm-ups. There is a short summary at the bottom if you don't feel like reading all of them.

http://bretcontreras.com/what-does-sports-science-research-have-to-say-about-warming-up/

Stretching is good only as a temporary quick fix. The tension and range of motion of any muscle is determined by the nervous system and is influenced by biomechanical problems. If you warm up fully and still have tight muscles, it's not the muscles' fault. Stretching the muscle can restore range of motion temporarily but at the cost of power.

People who stretching "works" for typically have not completed the much more difficult option of identifying and fixing the many pathologies that they almost certainly suffer from due to their use of chairs.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Stretching is good only as a temporary quick fix. The tension and range of motion of any muscle is determined by the nervous system and is influenced by biomechanical problems. If you warm up fully and still have tight muscles, it's not the muscles' fault. Stretching the muscle can restore range of motion temporarily but at the cost of power.

People who stretching "works" for typically have not completed the much more difficult option of identifying and fixing the many pathologies that they almost certainly suffer from due to their use of chairs.

The problem with these types of studies is they talk about "stretching" and that is not really a hard core scientific term. What they should do is study a SPECIFIC Yoga or Pilates or Tai Chi workout and see if they produce a SPECIFIC result. That is far more what I would call science. I have not done much Tai Chi or Pilates but having done Yoga for years I will say anyone who does not do Yoga (or other similar activities) is CRAZY! The benefits are amazing!

The dog was also without shorts, pants and underwear. Please notify us when you'll imitate it in that regard.

The dog was also without shorts, pants and underwear. Please notify us when you'll imitate it in that regard.

agip wrote:

to be fair to me, I did first cite a study that found no reason to start stretching, but current stretchers should continue.

why am I so keen? I dunno. Bored, I guess.

I'll stop.

You are not wrong. All this thread does is point out how OBSCENELY STUPID a lot of runners are...and then they're arrogant enough to try to tell elites and their coaches how to train. It's only been 13 years since the British Journal of Medicine published the groundbreaking study showing that stretching was worse than useless for preventing injuries, and these morons haven't figured it out yet.

Here is is Keninisa Bekele and the rest of the Ethiopian National Team doing dynamic warmups rather than stretching:

Static stretching is so bad for your performance that weightlifters and sprinters have to wait a full hour for the negative effects that make you weaker and slower to disappear. There was an opinion for a while that the negative effects only applied to speed and power athletes, but in distance runners, stretching has been shown to reduce speed, reduce endurance, and reduce running economy:

Stretching proponents are totally full of shit.

i practice stretching so I can fellate myself, I have become extremely flexible and now when in need of a BJ all i need is my own mouth

"It’s so, so important to stretch before and after a race. I have a physio who stretches me – before I run I always do at least 40-45 minutes warm-up."

-Usain Bolt (fastest man in history)

coach d wrote:

You are not wrong. All this thread does is point out how OBSCENELY STUPID a lot of runners are...

You Sir, come across as being a very unpleasant, ignorant and rude person.

Abel Kirui -

Haile Gebrselassie -

Kenenisa Bekele -

David Rudisha -

Super Jay Five wrote:

The problem with these types of studies is they talk about "stretching" and that is not really a hard core scientific term.

It's scientific enough to mean stretching the muscle instead of fixing the structure around it so it doesn't tighten up in the first place.

Muscles themselves are very flexible, particularly during sleep. It isn't until you wake up that the nervous system takes over and sets the tension and range of motion in each muscle. When people stretch, when that poster's dog stretches, after waking up, it's not about tight muscles, it's about the nervous system getting its bearings and setting the parameters for the kinetic chains it will use during the day. Stretching after standing up is the same kind of thing, the nervous system says, ok, new activity coming up, make sure everything's ready. If the nervous system did not do this, the muscles would use too much range of motion, decreasing efficiency and risking injury to tendons and ligaments.

Simply warming up properly should set the range of motion to the right level. If it doesn't, it points to a biomechanical pathology that athletic stretching does nothing to fix and only weakly counteracts.

agip wrote:

"generally unnecessary and likely counterproductive"

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/reasons-not-to-stretch/?_r=0

"One, a study being published this month in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, concluded that if you stretch before you lift weights, you may find yourself feeling weaker and wobblier than you expect during your workout. Those findings join those of another new study from Croatia, a bogglingly comprehensive re-analysis of data from earlier experiments that was published in The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.

Together, the studies augment a growing scientific consensus that pre-exercise stretching is generally unnecessary and likely counterproductive."

now hit me with some pro-stretching anecdotes.

if you already have an injury. stretching will help. that's what i use it for.

That is why I suggested Yoga, Tai Chi and Palates (there are more) exercise programs. These work on MANY levels and some have been around for hundreds of years. They involve breathing, flexibility, strength, balance, relaxation etc. and many runners use these systems. Try one of these for a few months and then make a judgment.

Super Jay Five wrote:

That is why I suggested Yoga, Tai Chi and Palates (there are more) exercise programs. These work on MANY levels and some have been around for hundreds of years. They involve breathing, flexibility, strength, balance, relaxation etc. and many runners use these systems. Try one of these for a few months and then make a judgment.

+1 for yoga.

agip wrote:

now hit me with some pro-stretching anecdotes.

With the OP's all-inclusive "All stretching is a waste of time", only one example is needed to disprove this:

Kennis Dimetto wrote:

Totally ridiculous reasoning behind some of the things Matt Fitzgerald wrote there.

Please elaborate then.

Even though I always hate their opinions on distance spectating, Bad Wigins and coach d are 100% correct here. The majority of the greatest runners of all-time, past and present, don't stretch.

Hardloper wrote:

Even though I always hate their opinions on distance spectating, Bad Wigins and coach d are 100% correct here. The majority of the greatest runners of all-time, past and present, don't stretch.

Greatest of all time:

Usain Bolt- Stretches

Michael Johnson- Stretched

Rudisha- Stretches

El Gerrouj- Stretched

Bekele- Stretches

Kipsang- Stretches

There you go. The GREATEST of all time from 100m all the way up to the marathon, all stretchers...

Even Kawauchi, a pressed-for-time amateur runner stretches:

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/sports/topics/AJ201202250014

I saw with my own eyes the stretching routine of Paul Tergat when he ran a 10K road race in Prague many years ago. And one think he did was that he stood on one leg and put the other behind his head!! He was flexible like a gymnast. So whenever I hear someone saying that he can put his hands just slightly below his knees with extended legs but it's OK because he's a runner and doesn't have to and even shouldn't be flexible I have to laugh.

People not degenerated by civilization who don't sit on their bum all day long (and then just go for a run for 1-2 hrs) are really naturally flexible; and that case with your typical western runner who can't put his hands on ground is rather sad.