Stretching the Truth

"For a study published in late 2010, scientists at the Florida State University , in Tallahassee, recruited ten competitive male collegiate athletes and asked them not to stretch during their warm-ups. Many athletes would, of course, balk at that request. A separate, large-scale study of recreational runners, conducted under the auspices of the USA Track and Field Association and also published in 2010, required years to complete, because the researchers couldn’t find a sufficiently large body of runners willing to give up their stretching routines, even in the interest of science. Thankfully , college-age men are, in general , not averse to avoiding physical exertion, even stretching, when they can, and so the ten men signed on.

The researchers brought the volunteers into the university’s exercise physiology laboratory for a series of fitness tests, including measurements of their flexibility , then had them return for two additional sessions. During both, the men ran on a treadmill for an hour . In one session, they prepared for the run by simply sitting quietly for sixteen minutes. In the other , they stretched first, following a scripted sixteen-minute static-stretching routine. Static stretching (which is what most of us mean when we talk about stretching) involves stretching a muscle to its maximum length and holding it for 20 or 30 seconds. After stretching, the men felt more flexible.

But their performance declined, significantly . During the hour-long run, they covered less distance than when they had just sat quietly .They also consumed more calories and oxygen during the run, suggesting that their strides had become less economical , that the running was physiologically harder . The implication, the scientists concluded, was obvious. “Static stretching should be avoided before endurance events, ”they wrote.To which many athletes would respond, if their on going behavior is any indication, with an eye roll and a brush-off."