When it comes to sports and exercise, everyone is prone to get injured at one time or another. There is a whole array of injuries from pulled hamstring, to the most common sprained ankle, and as server as a broken bone or torn cartilage in your knee. Although there is no magic cure or way to prevent injury, one thing that does help prevent some minor common injuries is stretching.
There is some controversy out there about whether or not stretching actually prevents injuries. Exercise science major, James Ablang, reacts to the idea that stretching prevents injuries and improves performance saying, “No, research says no, it doesn’t prevent injury or improve performance.” Ablang continues to make his point clear that it’s a psychological thing for people to believe that stretching helps prevent injuries.
In an article by Len Kravitz, and exercise science and researcher at University of New Mexico, Kravitz said, “Flexibility training has been promoted for decades as an integral part of fitness that may help decrease the risk of injury.” Kravitz’s article continues to mention that there is still no solid proof that stretching and flexibility training decrease the likelihood of injuries.
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| Ali DiCello demonstrates proper stretches for your arms, legs and back. |
Stretching may not be the cure for all injuries, but it does have a positive effect on people’s bodies and their health. Jared Stankevich, a junior engineering major mentions that, “Overall stretching is beneficial and helps prevent [muscle] strains and tears.”
Similar to most activities, stretching is one in which to have a positive effect on the body, must be executed properly. Contrary to popular belief, “stretching immediately before exercise may actually impede rather than improve sport performance,” mentioned in Kraitz’s article Does Stretching Improve Performance?
Junior Interior design major Jessica Kellison, finds in completely necessary to stretch before doing physical activites such as dance and cheerleading, sports that she used to participate in. “If I didn’t warm up and stretch before I cheered, I for sure was going to pull a muscle!” said Kellison. “There’s no way you can lift your leg up by your ear without stretching first.”
An article from The Stretching Institute quotes a line from an article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine which stated that, “Basketball players who did not stretch during the warm up were 2.7 times more likely to injure their ankle than players who performed stretches.”
One fact mentioned by almost every source is that stretching after you worked out while your muscles are still warm is an important time to stretch. Tish Husak, a low impact aerobics instructor at Long Beach State, said, “The main muscle movers that we used in class that day are what we make sure to stretch at the end of class.” Husak continued to mention that the more intense the workout was, the longer and deeper you should hold the stretch.
To receive a benefit from the stretch, “you must hold the stretch for 15 to 60 seconds,” said Ablang. “And make sure to stay still, don’t bounce, bouncing doesn’t do anything good for you.”
In an article, Proper Stretching Techniques, they explain seven rules of thumb about proper stretching. One in particular mentions that if someone wants to receive the benefits from stretching that they need to stretch at least three times a week.
Stretching is not only beneficial for preventing common minor muscle pulls and strains as well as aiding with people’s range of motion. “Flexibility is beneficial to improve range of motion,” explains Husak. “Stretching is a part of being fit.”
Staying fit and healthy is something that people of all ages need to work on and maintain. “Stretching is important as we grow older because we lose our range of motion and stretching helps keep us remain flexible,” said Husak. “It becomes part of your lifestyle to continue stretching as you get older.”
There are three factors that determine a person’s flexibility. They are age, gender and physical activity. In Kravitz’s article about stretching, he states how research has shown that flexibility decreases by 50 percent with age. The article continued to state that, “Bassey and associates suggest that this loss of motion can be minimized with regular stretching and [range of motion] exercise,” said Kravitz. Gender’s role in flexibility is shown in the minor differences in joint structures where women have a slightly greater range of motion than men.
