Stretching Before Exercise is Counter-productive And Potentially Harmful - - Revealed by Fitness Experts

If you are among those people who do stretching before workout, you should stop, fitness experts say.

While many people take it for granted that they should start their workout routines with some stretching for 20 to 30 seconds to loosen their muscles, most fitness experts now agree that stretching before exercise is counter-productive, potentially harmful and can cause tears to the muscle tissue.

Stretching Before Workout Tighten the Muscles

Traditional stretches, like when people bend over to touch their toes or stretch their legs, often cause the muscles to tighten rather than relax. Experts say that when people stretch to the maximum, they are more likely to pull a muscle.

According to experts at US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, during stretching, the body thinks it is at risk of being overstretched, therefore, it contracts and become tenser -making a person slower and increasing the possibility of injuries. (Telegraph, 16 April 2010)

Combing through more than 100 papers about stretching studies, experts at Disease and Prevention Center found that people who stretched before exercise were no less likely to suffer injuries such as a pulled muscle, which stretching is supposed to prevent. According to them, bending down to touch the toes with straight legs can overstretch the lower back muscles and stress the vertebrae. Adding a twisting movement to the toe-touch can also cause damage to the joints.

In 2008, a study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, revealed that athletes who did stretching before working out generated less force from their leg muscles than when they did not stretch at all. Other studies have also found that stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. (New York Times, 31 October 2008)

Warm-ups Must Begin With Light Jogging

Instead of stretching, experts recommend warming up with aerobic activity, light jogging or sport-specific exercise, like kicking for football or playing tennis. Light movement increases the heart rate and blood flow to the muscles, warming up the body temperature. While it is true that stretching helps with flexibility, people should only do it after a workout, or at the end of the day.

It is mistakenly believed that stretching helps muscles to stretch further. The new findings reveal that stretching causes muscles to contract even tighter in an attempt to prevent injury. Although the extent to which warm-ups and stretching prevent injury, still not clear, fitness experts have been clear that stretching alone before exercise does little or nothing to help.