drtbear1967
Musclechemistry Board Certified Member
About a dozen years ago, word trickled down from sports academia that doing static stretching before a lift would weaken us. Many abandoned pre-lift stretching immediately. But new research shows that doing a static-hold stretch before a lift doesn't hurt performance and might even increase it, as long as it's done for the right amount of time.
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Ebadi and Cetin recruited 15 athletes and had them participate in a complex static stretching program for quads, hams, calves, adductors and hip rotators. The subjects were divvied up into 4 groups. Each group did a 5-minute warm-up followed by:
.
• No stretching at all
• Holding each static stretch for 15 seconds
• Holding each stretch for 30 secs
• Holding each stretch for 45 secs
.
After stretching, or in the case of group A, not stretching at all, the subjects had their isokinetic strength measured via an Isomed 2000.
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What They Found: Five minutes of jogging followed by 15 seconds of static stretching increased isokinetic strength, whereas 30 and 45 seconds of static stretching caused a decrease in isokinetic strength.
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What This Means To You: The concept behind stretching has always been that it has positive effects on joint mobility, leading to increased performance. After all, if you can't position your shoulder correctly due to mobility restrictions, you're not going to be able to press or row efficiently. By the same token, squatting or deadlifting with tight hip flexors will make you look like aging waterfowl.
.
But, despite these intuitive beliefs in the merits of static stretching, previous research told us that it wasn't true; that we could do a warm-up and maybe some ballistic stretching but no static stretching. The previous research wasn't actually wrong, but it was incomplete, and the researchers weren't guilty of incompetence, but a lack of imagination. They didn't think to test short-duration static stretching. If they had, we'd probably all still be doing static stretching before certain lifts to improve performance, but only for periods of 15 seconds.
.
Ebadi and Cetin recruited 15 athletes and had them participate in a complex static stretching program for quads, hams, calves, adductors and hip rotators. The subjects were divvied up into 4 groups. Each group did a 5-minute warm-up followed by:
.
• No stretching at all
• Holding each static stretch for 15 seconds
• Holding each stretch for 30 secs
• Holding each stretch for 45 secs
.
After stretching, or in the case of group A, not stretching at all, the subjects had their isokinetic strength measured via an Isomed 2000.
.
What They Found: Five minutes of jogging followed by 15 seconds of static stretching increased isokinetic strength, whereas 30 and 45 seconds of static stretching caused a decrease in isokinetic strength.
.
What This Means To You: The concept behind stretching has always been that it has positive effects on joint mobility, leading to increased performance. After all, if you can't position your shoulder correctly due to mobility restrictions, you're not going to be able to press or row efficiently. By the same token, squatting or deadlifting with tight hip flexors will make you look like aging waterfowl.
.
But, despite these intuitive beliefs in the merits of static stretching, previous research told us that it wasn't true; that we could do a warm-up and maybe some ballistic stretching but no static stretching. The previous research wasn't actually wrong, but it was incomplete, and the researchers weren't guilty of incompetence, but a lack of imagination. They didn't think to test short-duration static stretching. If they had, we'd probably all still be doing static stretching before certain lifts to improve performance, but only for periods of 15 seconds.
