Rod Pope an army physiotherapist in Australia, recently carried out a wide study to assess the relationship between static stretching and injury prevention. Pope monitored over 1600 recruits over the course of a year in randomised controlled trials. He found no differences in the occurrence of injury between those recruits who statically stretched and those who did not. (1, 2)
“Gleim & McHugh (1997), would also challenge the premise that stretching, or indeed increased flexibility, reduces the risk of injury” (1,3)
New research has shown that static stretching decreases eccentric strength for up to an hour after the stretch. Static stretching has been shown to decrease muscle strength by up to 9% for 60 minutes following the stretch and decrease eccentric strength by 7% followed by a specific hamstring stretch. (4)
Rosenbaum and Hennig showed that static stretching reduced peak force by 5% and the rate of force production by 8%. This study was about Achilles tendon reflex activity. (5)
Gerard van der poel stated that static stretching caused a specific decrease in the specific coordination of explosive movements. (4)
Three 15-second stretches of the hamstrings, quadriceps, and calf muscles reduced the peak vertical velocity of a vertical jump in the majority of subjects (Knudson et al. 2000). (6,7)
This is where dynamic stretching comes into play. Dynamic stretching consists of functional based exercises which use sport specific movements to prepare the body for movement. (8) “Dynamic stretching, according to Kurz, "involves moving parts of your body and gradually increasing reach, speed of movement, or both."
Several professional coaches, authors and studies have supported or shown the effectiveness of dynamic stretching. Below are a few examples of support for dynamic stretching:
Mike Boyle uses a dynamic warm-up with his athletes. He goes through about 26000 workouts over the course of a summer. In 2002 he did not have one major muscle pull that required medical attention. (10)
Flexibility is speed specific. There are two kinds of stretch receptors, one measures magnitude and speed and the other measures magnitude only. Static flexibility improves static flexibility and dynamic flexibility improves dynamic flexibility which is why it doesn’t make sense to static stretch prior to dynamic activity. There is considerable but not complete transfer of static stretching to dynamic stretching(11)
One author compared a team that dynamically stretched to a team that static stretched. The team that dynamically stretched had fewer injuries. (8)
There are few sports where achieving static flexibility is advantageous to success in the sport. Therefore according to the principle of specificity it would seem to be more advantageous to perform a dynamic warm-up which more resembles the activity of the sport.(12)
Dynamic Flexibility increases core temperature, muscle temperature, elongates the muscles, stimulates the nervous system, and helps decrease the chance of injury. (13)
Another author showed that dynamic stretching does increase flexibility. (11)
All of our patients at Total Health Solutions are taught dynamic stretching for the above mentioned reasons. Get on board here, this is the way to go. If you have any questions in regards to your workouts, sport specific exercises and dynamic stretching, please contact our offices. Below I have attached some examples of these exercises.
http://www.elitesoccerconditioning.com/Stretching-Flexibility/5DynamicStretchingexercise.pdf
Take responsibility for your health TODAY.
Dr. Conley
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