The great STRETCH debate - vote here

ukathleticscoach wrote:

'To get back to your cat......'

He does 2 stretches. He's covering his spine and all the leg muscles in these 2 stretches

Sounds like he knows what he's doing. I used to get through upwards of 15 stretches before a session (most of them done twice on each side) and often barely managed to cover the spine at all! He's got the whole body down in 2!

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Seb coe did a lot of stetching and it didn't seem to slow him down!

Can't argue with results.

well we've had 55 responses in, and each category is pretty close to being equally represented (what were the chances!!). So here are the results you've all been waiting for (and yes, they're very scientific - feel free to use the results in your PhD in sports science - they say you get extra marks even referencing a letsrun.com message board!):

A) No Stretching (19 responses) avg. = 1.21 injuries

B) 5-10mins per day (18 responses) avg. = 0.39 injuries

C) 10+ per day (18 resposnses) avg = 0.50 injuries

CONCLUSIONS:

So it looks like some sort of stretching may be useful. I don't think the difference betwen B and C is statistically significant, but the differences between A and B/C does seem pretty compelling. However, this obviously is unable to isolate other components like training volume, the style of stretching, racing schedule, age, PR, recent PR improvement etc etc.

I think we're all agreed that some form of a dynamic stretching (whether it be high knees or leg swings) is good to maintain a high range of motion, but static stretching after workouts is something that may come down to individual experience and the type of stretch/injury that individual is doing/has.

As for me... I'm going to keep doing 5-10mins of static stretching after workouts that particularly target problem areas (but just very gently). But am going to make a concious effort to step up my routines in drills and leg swings and so on - as I see it, these can only help both range of motion, flexibility and form. I think you're crazy if you don't do any of this stuff, example... a 1500m runner who does speedwork at or about on race pace will only have taken their body up to that limit in range of motion that comes at that speed. So when they look to kick home from 300 out, all of a sudden their body has to go through a range of motion (due to the increased speed) greater than they have done at any stage in their training. Surely this will lead to increased fatigue, as joints are combating lack of flexibility, that could have been avoided with some form of dynamic stretching at least. And I'd say the same would apply to a 10k-marathon runner who is kicking for home from 1k out - if you haven't done the speedwork at the higher intensity you can avoid extra muscle fatigue and potential injury by running your muscles and tendons through that range of motion by stretching through out your training. blah blah blah ... sorry, i'm rambling now!

Thanks all for their participation. Much appreciated.

I stand corrected. Good thread.