Eli5 why does doing stretches prior to working out make you perform better and less likely to be injured?
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It doesn’t, it is an old belief, in fact has newer science shown that by “warming up” is it not that uncommon to see a 25% reduction in performance, because the body is already tired.
Stretching has actually been demonstrated to reduce performance rather than increasing it.
I know this is ELI5 and not askscience, but here are some sources anyway:
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2010/09000/Effects_of_Static_Stretching_on_Energy_Cost_and.2.aspx
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2012.01444.x
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/FullText/2012/02000/Effects_of_Dynamic_Stretching_on_Energy_Cost_and.4.aspx
I read a study awhile back that concluded people that always stretched and people that never stretched suffered about the same amount of injuries but people that sometimes stretched and sometimes didn’t suffered notably more injuries.
When you do stretches, you’re making your muscles longer and looser,
kind of like stretching out a rubber band. This makes your muscles ready
to work and play better, and less likely to get hurt.
I’m not convinced that there is good evidence of the benefit of stretching for performance.
I get the impression that it is probably good for the opposite case – when you are sitting/sedentary/relaxing, taking a break to stretch can be good to mitigate the downsides of sitting around too long.
Although stretching can reduce performance. It’s rare that a person has optimal ranges of motion and or posture. This could be as simple as being able to open up at the hips prior to squatting, or one side opening up more than the other.
Risk of injury is increased when warming up incorrectly. But when you get to know how your own structure tends to behave during movements. You can mitigate instabilities, or poor joint alignment, through dynamic or static stretches. Although static stretching is demonised by science as a hinderance prior to training. I’d confidently say that “corrective static stretching”, is not.
Like anything in exercise. Application is key. And what is correct for one person, may not be for another. Based on a broad range of circumstances. People may ask, “what should I do to mobilise before exercise”. That depends on the exercises you’re doing, positional issues, ranges of motion, injuries etc. A professional would need examine the way you move to answer effectively.
First thing to note is there are different types of stretching, like dynamic and static. Second thing to note is that pre-workout stretching is only recommended before certain workout activities, not all of them. The key to understanding how, why, and when to stretch is in understanding that the muscle-tendon connection works like a spring.
When you keep the muscle-tendon connection elastic, the tendon can absorb greater energy. If more energy is transferred to the muscle than it can support, it can tear the muscle fibers- resulting in injury and soreness.
Dynamic stretching is doing the range of motion of the workout activity at a lower intensity. It increases range of motion and reduces passive stiffness for about an hour following the stretch. It increases compliance (ability to extend and spring back) and stretch tolerance (how far you can extend before needing to spring back). Some activities require intense springing action, called stretch-shortening cycles. American football and soccer are good examples.
Other activities that don’t require intense springing action are swimming, cycling, and jogging. Since these activities repetitively use a limited range of motion, stiffness and decreased range of motion can increase efficiency. Stretching beforehand to increase range of motion is not beneficial.
Static stretching is holding a stretch for 60 seconds. It should be considered its own workout with an appropriate recovery period, not a warm up to a workout activity. It’s actually best to do these stretches *after* working out because the muscles will be more pliable, so stretching can increase the stretch threshold for greater flexibility. You don’t want to stretch cold, stiff muscles, as that can lead to injury. There are long term benefits to static stretching regularly (twice a week), just not as a warm up activity.
It actually doesn’t do all that much. Some stretching is good, but what the limbs really need is *oxygen*.
That’s why you’ll see runners swinging their arms and running in place, instead of stretching — the movement helps oxygenated blood flow to the extremities.
i think of it as a dough. warm it up, more stretchy and soft, keep it cold, no stretch and rough
I don’t know about other commenters but i’m a lifter so I suppose i’ll give my 2 cents.
stretching isn’t necessarily beneficial, but warming up in other ways is.
when your muscles don’t move a lot, or don’t move as much as they can, they get comfortable and don’t like to move much. by doing “stretches” that move your muscles through their whole range of motion (aka how far the muscle can move), for example twisting side to side or waving your arms like a windmill, you can wake your muscles up and get them used to moving around a lot again.
Forcing your muscles to lift heavy weights or play sports when they’ve been spending the whole day before sitting down can cause them to get hurt. it’s like being in a hot shower and it suddenly turns ice cold. it’s too much of a change too fast. it doesn’t feel good.
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