To Stretch or Not to Stretch?

There is a lot of mythology in circulation regarding stretching.

The resting tone of a muscle is established neurologically. What that means is that organelles in the muscle called the muscle spindle, which controls the quick stretch mechanism of the muscle, determines the sensitivity to stretch of the muscle, and it also seems to be involved in establishing the resting tension in the muscle. So in a nutshell, that means that stretching does not seem to impact the resting length of the muscle.

So why stretch?

Well, I can think of a few reasons to stretch. First of all, when it comes to competing, a little pre-competition stretching has been shown to improve performance. The reason for this is surmised to be that the actin and myosin relationships in the muscle are optimized allowing the muscle to work more efficiently. And clearly you see top athletes stretching before and after competing for sure. What is current practice in competitive athletes today is what is known as an "active warm up", which is made up of little movement patterns that are part of the full motion package that the athlete will engage in. I also know, though, that top teams spend a lot of time stretching to prevent injury in professional soccer players for instance. So there is still uncertainty.

I also believe that when one stretches, one is taking the joints through a more complete range of motion, which will have a positive impact on the articular cartilage. Cartilage requires intermittent compression plus gliding to be properly nourished, and stretching might get you to take your joints through a full ROM without overloading them.

Additionally, the same idea is true for your dense connective tissues - the ligaments and capsules get maximally stretched when the joint achieves maximum congruence, which occurs at the end of the range of motion of a joint. So at the end of the joints ROM, the cartilage is maximally compressed and the ligaments and capsules are maximally stretched, all of which helps prepare the tissue for activity. I imagine that the dense connective tissues imbibe water as they relax after being maximally stretched for a few seconds, and it is that process that "protects" them from overuse injury during activity.

Stretching also activates both joint receptors and muscle receptors in areas being stretched that are inhibitory to the muscle and relax it for the moment. Does this relaxed muscle stay relaxed? I don't believe so. I believe that muscles get longer if you "play them longer". What I mean by this is that if you use a muscle in a longer range, say by following through while kicking a football for example, then your muscle will gradually tolerate a longer resting length. Muscles are very elastic. If I cut your biceps tendon at the elbow, I could take the end of the muscle and walk across the room with it, more or less, and if I let go of the end I was holding, the muscle would recover its resting length.

"What about yoga?" I hear you asking...Well in yoga, you don't just stretch, you activate the muscles in longer ranges which is why people who practice yoga actually become more flexible. But they also increase the flexibility of their joints, and their muscles are encouraged to be active through longer ranges, hence appear to be longer because of stretching.

Whats the bottom line, to stretch or not to stretch?


I think that stretching is a valuable practice to engage in for injury prevention purposes in active people. Stretching helps prepare the muscles,tendons, and the joint dense connective tissues including the cartilage be prepared for loading. I do not think that stretching makes you more flexible in your muscles per se though. So yes, before and after exercise, stretch. In Anderson and Anderson's classic book, Stretching, there is a great 10 minute daily total body stretching routine. In my mind, that's all one really needs to do as a routine stretching practice.

Beyond that, it is really up to you, and if you do more and feel better for it, by all means go ahead.

If you intend to stretch, it pays to warm up a bit before you do so. I suggest a 5 to 10 minute warm up before you stop and stretch, then you will be ready to compete, you joints and other dense connective tissues lubricated and hydrated, your muscles prepped for activity, and your brain in the mindset for competition.