Does stretching make you faster?

stretching? wrote:

So i get that stretching doesnt really help for injury prevention, but how bout speed? I can run a 5k in 17:45, a 2 mile in 11:30, a mile in 5:45, and a 800 in 2:50 and a 400 in 1:20... would stretching help me get faster? My track coach told me stretching=speed?

A famous coach told me that stretching may cause more injuries then negate them. A lot of elites only do dynamic stretching. Just be cautious.

For a better range of motion get a foam roller.

To improve lose some weight (I mean this in the politest possible way) but cutting back on sugar, biscuits, potato chips, sugary breakfacst cereals, cheese and red meat intake) will have a beneficial impact on economy.

Work on stabilization exercises and core strength. Add black pepper to your dinner, seem to give you more energy and helps to lose weight.

Once every 2/3 weeks go for a swim.

Add in a few strides each week, for improved leg turnover.

If you or your coach knows of a really well put-together static stretching routine and knows how to do it properly, do it after workouts only. You're not trying to be a ballet dancer, you just want to open things up a bit and help elongate muscles that are shortened during running. You may want to look outside of a track coach for this. But if you do not know what you are doing (as very few people actually know how to stretch properly) or stretch too forcefully, you can get injured.

Nebulous runner wrote:

If you or your coach knows of a really well put-together static stretching routine and knows how to do it properly, do it after workouts only. You're not trying to be a ballet dancer, you just want to open things up a bit and help elongate muscles that are shortened during running. You may want to look outside of a track coach for this. But if you do not know what you are doing (as very few people actually know how to stretch properly) or stretch too forcefully, you can get injured.

Interesting response and thread. As the father of a 10-yr old daughter who has run a 25-something cross-country style 5k at almost 6,000' above sea level, I wonder if too much stretching is hurting her? She is a ballet dancer, dancing two nights per week, and her passion is dance, which she plans on doing full time in middle school (5-6 days per week). She also swims twice a week, which she loves, and jogs occasionally with her mother, generally once, but sometimes twice per week for about 20-25 min or so.

I am not too concerned about her running as it is her decision and no need to get serious about it until high school if she chooses, but, she is naturally not very flexible. She stretches every night because her dance teachers want her to get her splits by the end of this year. But it almost seems like she is forcing it a bit too hard, almost to the detriment of her running, strength, and form? At least that is what it seems like... On the other hand, as I said, she is not naturally flexible, a hindrance that led to my own injury-prone running career.

So what say you letsrun? Is vigorous stretching for dance now going to help her down the road or hurt her, in general and for running?

The poster before you (Nebulous) had it right but your daughter's dancing flexibility for ballet is generally too flexible for running. If she takes up running seriously when she gets older she'll likely lose her ballet flexibility.

If lack of flexibility affects range of motion, then it can affect speed. I think Pfitz says the same thing in one of his books, particularly in regards to hip flexors affecting hip extension.

But I think the question should be "how much faster does stretching make you?" I think it's a pretty insignificant amount compared to other things you could do to improve your speed, such as speedwork, weights, plyos, etc.

Yes! Stretching makes you real fast!

a flexible muscle can contract harder so yes. However, in terms of improving distance times, no. Your overall raw speed may increase.

stretching? wrote:

So i get that stretching doesnt really help for injury prevention, but how bout speed? I can run a 5k in 17:45, a 2 mile in 11:30, a mile in 5:45, and a 800 in 2:50 and a 400 in 1:20... would stretching help me get faster? My track coach told me stretching=speed?

Strides and a little jogging on an incline is a good pre-run stretch. Dynamic lunges and stuff are cool.

Sometimes it makes you faster.

If you train in very early morning, the circadian cycle will disagree with running and the warm up will have to be longer. But running 40 minutes to warm up is not a great solution. In this case, stretching will contribute to the warm up and your training will benefit indirectly.

coach d wrote:

Typical ignorance from distance runners, which is a reason why so many distance runners are soooo slow.

It has been know for at least 15 years that stretching does NOT reduce injuries, and it has been known for 5-10 years that static stretching makes you weaker and slower, and this applies to all forms of exercise including aerobic running. Dozens of studies have been done that all show the same thing. It can take up to an hour to overcome the negative performance effects of static stretching. These days with all the info on the web, any coach this misinformed should have not athletes with him

What TO do--standard drills like A-B-C as a dynamic warmup.

You are confusing things slightly. Stretching without strengthening into that new range of motion is worthless. Standard drills are stretching, but using the muscles involved with the range of motion. You can get strength into additional range of motion by assisting the muscles to move farther than they are currently capable of moving on their own, but by actively trying to do that motion. Eventually you will gain enough strength and/or neural connections to allow yourself to reach that range of motion. This is the premise of Active Isolated Stretching the whartons promote.

More standard stretches where you just hold a position are more for stretching fascia than muscle and are important to do if they are limiting range of motion. And, while stretching muscles that you are about to use statically limits performance, stretching antagonist muscles or upper body muscles so that they are relaxed and not tonic does not.

Finally, I have a theory that the studies that look at power output after static stretching would be different if the participants regularly exercised into that range of motion. That is I think the reduced power output is due to the participants not having strength at the end range.

And yes, if you have mobility limited in such a way that the right muscles aren't firing, you will get injured.

I used to be fast, but I haven't really stretched in a few years. I stretch a little, but I haven't stretched all my muscles at once in a while. I've gotten much slower, and I get muscle cramps in certain parts of my leg when I stretch now. So, always stretch or you will end up like me

For me it didn't influence my times or health whether or not I stretched. The best way to warm up is run at an easier intensity. Maybe a couple butt kicks and high knees but that's it. Do some strides after the warmup run is good too.

Sources? I would like to see some studies or at least a good article.

I want to show my dumb teammates that think that stretching before runs is good for you because they made our team do static stretches for 5-10 minutes before every run!

Bump

When I was younger I could do the scissors splits easily, and I was faster. Now I can't , and I am slower. Must be the stretching.

Joan Benoit Samuelson does Yin Yoga, which is basically long hold stretching. If it's good enough for her it's good enough for me. Luckily, I like that kind of stretching.

A healthy young runner should probably not do static stretching. But I would still think there may be exceptions to the rule.

Injured and possibly older athletes may have to do some.

At 60 I have quit doing static stretching for the last few weeks completely.

Physical therapists will have one doing static stretching and if you are injured it still might be the way to go.

I am sure that some champions have never done static stretching in their lives. To me at the moment I say NO to static stretching but have not found that dynamic stretching helps much either! Maybe it's because I grew up on static stretching?

Going sub 16 isn't really that great of a feat and can be done by people that aren't doing the optimal training. There is little to no evidence that stretching helps running performance, and there is loads of evidence that shows that stretching is bad for running. This doesn't mean that people won't be fast while stretching, they would just be faster if they didn't stretch.