To stretch or not to stretch? The latest understanding of preworkout routines may have you rethinking yours. Recently, the New York Times summed up the latest evidence suggesting that static stretching — slowly moving muscles until they just start to hurt and holding the stretch briefly — doesn’t prevent injuries, and actually impairs strength and speed in some athletes. According to the Times, two recent studies support limiting stretching before physical activity. The Times reports: One, a study being published this month in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, concluded that if you stretch before you lift weights, you may find yourself feeling weaker and wobblier than you expect during your workout. Those findings join those of another new study from Croatia, a bogglingly comprehensive reanalysis of data from earlier experiments that was published in The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. Together, the studies augment a growing scientific consensus that pre-exercise stretching is generally unnecessary and likely counterproductive. One of the studies from researchers at the University of Zagreb reviewed 104 studies of people who only practiced static stretching as their warm-up and found that stretching reduced muscle strength by 5.5%. The second study looked at fit men who completed basic squats while lifting barbells either with or without stretching beforehand. Those that stretched lifted 8.3% less weight than those who didn’t. And these are not the only studies to report the trend. In fact, most physical trainers haven’t recommended long bouts of stretching before workouts for quite some time. Most suggest just a little light and brief stretch beforehand, and spending more time on recovery stretching afterwards. “It has been a long time since anyone has recommended extensive stretching before exercise, because it has been known for a while now that the best time to stretch is after,” says Richard Cotton, the national director of certification at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). (MORE: It’s Not Too Late to Start: Tips for Training for a Distance Run) So why did stretching become such an … Continue reading Why Stretching May Not Help Before Exercise