Is stretching bad for you?

[Deleted]

I read some recent literature by a top Ironman coach and although I have no intention of taking up running, it did provide some interesting aspects to think about.

One of them was his opinion on stretching and I wanted to know what you thought about it?

Basically his premise is that stretching is actually bad for you as it invloves movement that is beyond your natural motion both on or off the bike, which leads to an increased risk of injury.

He cited a couple of studies which showed as much, saying amongst other things that the most often injured muscle is the hamstring which is also the most frequently stretched.

He said that your ability to stretch should be developped by doing the actual exercise itself and that would give you sufficient motion, except in such pursuits as dancing and gymnastics.

I've always read that streching is crucial so was a bit surprised with this. What are your thoughts on this and how much do you stretch (if at all)?

[Deleted]

I suppose my short answer is that I don't know whether stretching is good or bad for you, however I have always felt that the more I stretched, the more I seem to pick up little niggles in the hamstrings or achillies. I thought that it was always a bit of voodoo, but maybe there is something in this. Saying this, I still do a short amount of light stretching every evening (about 10-15mins) as I otherwise feel a bit tight. It seems to have worked recently without the normal twinges. Perhaps, it is more a case of how far you push it whilst stretching, rather than whether you stretch or not.....
(sorry, I don't think that really helps...!)

[David Joss Buckley]

The mistake a lot of people make is to stretch before warming up - that's when you risk damaging hamstrings etc. I was told you need to do 10 minutes of general work to lift the body temperature, get the muscles working before you start to stretch. Dancers used to bounce through the stretches to increase mobility, but that is now frowned upon - just ease into it and hold as you breathe out... at least that's what I was advised.

[andyw]

There are basically two different sorts of strecthing: stretching to actively lengthen your muscles, and stretching to return your muscles to their natural length after intense exercise.
The latter is useful to us as cyclists. Hard exercise will have the effect of making your muscles tight - which we've all felt - strecthing to relieve this tension post exercise and later is useful.
Stretching to actively lengthen your muscles is entirely pointless for our purposes. It may be useful for dancers and gymnasts, but cyclists? Forget about it. It is this sort of un-supervised stretching that causes injury rather than the former.

Moral of the story - if a muscle feels tight, gently stretch it. If you feel totally free and easy, leave them well alone.

As for including stretching in a warm up, as one of my sports science lecturers once asked us, how does standing still "warm" you up? It doesn't. The best warm up is the activity you plan to do, only at a lesser (but gradually increasing) intensity.