October 16, 2024 • 24 mins
This is a great episode I made last year that people got a lot of values from. I wanted to put this one back on just in case you have missed this.
In this episode, I dive deep into the research on stretching and seeing if it is effective for injury reduction, performance enhancement, or pain relief.
Some of the facts may surprise you. Countless things that I've been told about stretching are vastly different from what I thought to be true.
There are many forms of stretching, and some have been proven to be more effective than others. And some just don't make a huge difference at all for your overall health and fitness.
If you benefit from episodes like this, hit that ‘Follow’ button, and leave a 5-star rating on Spotify or Apple. This would really help this podcast to grow and reach more people who could benefit from living a pain-free life.
Interested in working with us? We're looking for healthcare workers, busy parents, and working professionals over 30 who want to eliminate chronic pain from their life so they can enjoy a more active life with their friends & family. We've helped over 550 people find long term success in becoming pain-free. Book a call here to speak with us: https://www.flexwithdoctorjay.co/book
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Won Body Won LifePodcast.
Hi, I'm your host, Dr.
Jason Won lifestyle, physicaltherapist.
I talk about everything healthand wellness related.
So you too can have a moreresilient body and a more
fulfilling life.
If you haven't yet, pleasesupport the channel by hitting
that subscribe or follow button.
So you never miss out on anotherpodcast episode.
Also, if you could please leavea review or ranking before
leaving this episode, that waymore people will be able to
(00:25):
benefit from the content of mypodcast.
Today, I wanted to talk about aheavily debated topic.
Is stretching effective?
And that's a very blanketedstatement that can then be
transferred to many aspects ofour health.
And I'll keep this concise andbreak this down into three easy
questions that you might wantanswers for.
Number one, is stretching goodfor reducing injuries?
(00:48):
And number two is stretchinggood for performance
enhancement.
And lastly, number three isstretching good for reduction in
pain levels.
Since many of us are alreadytime strapped and it's already
hard to prioritize exercise, weneed to dive into the research
and also a mixture of myclinical opinion to see if
stretching is effective.
For anything, so let's dive intothis now.
(01:11):
So number one is stretching goodfor reducing injuries.
And the answer is not really.
The research hardly backs thatany form of stretching actually
reduces your chance of injury.
A large systematic review byLarson et al in 2014 examined
multiple studies on stretchingand injury prevention.
And they evaluated the resultsof 26, 000 people who between
(01:35):
them had experienced 3, 500injuries.
And they found that good balancereduced injury by 35%.
Better strength reduced injuryrisk by nearly 70%.
And stretching.
Stretching did not reduceinjuries significantly at all.
And this was taken into accountall forms of stretching.
And in my clinical opinion, ifyou're doing immense amounts of
(01:57):
stretching before workout toreduce your chances of injury,
taking your muscles throughextensive lengths of motion can
actually increase your risk forinjury.
More about this later when weanswer the question about
performance.
But if you are prepping for asport, let's say.
Such as running and you're doinga ton of reaching for your toes
to get a nice hamstring stretch.
You really don't need thatamount of range of motion to
(02:19):
run.
You're mostly upright and doingmajority of your task unless
you're running uphill, whichaccounts for a little bit of hip
hinge and a little bit morehamstring stress.
But hinging that far andstretching your hamstrings
before an activity will not doyou any good.
And an adequate warm up ofrunning drills that are more
specific to the task at handwould be more beneficial.
(02:42):
So taking this into account isthat when you are thinking about
stretching and reducing injury,you want to think of something
which I call S.
A.
I.
D.
And what that stands for isSpecific Adaptations to Imposed
Demands.
And so this means that if youwant to reduce your chances of
injury, let's say for anothersport, such as tennis, you need
(03:04):
to ensure that in a gym settingor at a home gym, that you're
replicating those exact demandsvia the form of using dumbbells,
bands, kettlebells, or any formof resistance training that will
greatly increase your.
Athletic performance, it'llincrease the 10 cell strength of
your tendons and muscles andbones, so that it gets used to
(03:26):
the demands of tennis.
But if you're thinking about Ineed to stretch my chest or
stretch my hamstrings or stretchmy calf in order to reduce my
chances of injury.
The research doesn't really backthat.
Instead, think about SED, whichis Specific Adaptations to
Imposed Demands.
Now, there is some relevance tostatic stretching.
(03:48):
Now, let's say if you are agymnast and you need to be in
very flexible positions, then itdoes make sense to sometimes
take certain joints and musclesthrough larger ranges of motion.
Or let's say if you are abaseball player.
Occasionally, it may bebeneficial for you to stretch
your pectoral long term.
So that way you do get moreshoulder external rotation when
(04:11):
you do decide to throw abaseball, but rarely in any
circumstance would you say thatstatic stretching would be
beneficial for reducing injuryand sometimes may actually
increase your risk for injury.
So more about this in our secondquestion, which is stretching
good for performanceenhancement?
And the answer to that is itactually depends on duration and
(04:33):
when you stretch.
So let's take static stretching,for example.
And for some of you guys thatdon't know static stretching,
what that is, is any stretchheld from 30 to 120 seconds.
And in one research study, Theyexamined the effects of static
stretching on sprint performancein collegiate track and field
athletes.
Research reported actually a 3percent decrease in sprinting
(04:57):
performance on a 40 meterfollowing pre event static
stretching.
An amazing study by Wallman etal.
2012 examined the effects ofacute static.
Dynamic as well as ballisticstretching and no stretching of
the ilio psoas muscle on a 40yard sprint time in 18 to 37
(05:17):
year old non competitiverecreational runners.
So to break that down before wedive into the results, acute
static means that immediatelybefore That sprint event is that
they do that 30 to 120 secondstatic stretch.
Dynamic stretching is moremovement based.
So there is some evidence toshow that dynamic increases
(05:38):
warmth of the tissues canincrease joint pliability and is
a little bit more effective thanstatic stretching.
So they all said dynamic andthen ballistic stretching is
basically taking a certain jointthrough very fast velocity
ranges of motion.
So if you're swinging your Armin a circular fashion, multiple
times at a very fast speed thatis more considered ballistic
(05:59):
stretching versus dynamic.
And again, the fourth thing thatthey measured and that they did
research on was a group that didno stretching at all of the
Iliopsoas muscle, which is a hipflexor muscle important for
sprinters and runners.
In eye popping fashion, theresults concluded that there
were no statistical differencesin sprint time for ballistic,
(06:22):
dynamic, or acute staticstretching, and the only
significant improvements camefrom the no stretching group.
And they simply warmed up andwalked on a treadmill.
Now for me, this was very eyepopping research because when
you look at people that requirefast velocity movements, such as
sprinters, is that forms ofstretching can actually reduce
(06:44):
your performance and reduce yoursprint speed.
But if you don't do anystretching, you simply just warm
up the tissues or you dospecific exercises beforehand.
That again, replicate thedemands of sprinting.
So let's say high knees or buttkicks or different things, which
takes your joints through theranges of motion required to
(07:05):
complete that task, that isactually much more effective
than ballistic stretching.
So if you think about swingingyour leg up and down which is
like a dynamic hamstring stretchor swinging your leg side to
side, which would stretch outyour groins and your hips, even
though that seems relevant, andthese are things that.
I actually did in the pastbefore squats and deadlifts that
actually is ineffective forimproving sprint speed or
(07:28):
improving significantperformance in many realms of
athletes.
So hopefully this can be veryrelevant.
If you are somebody that istrying to improve their
performance, if you are a coachor an athlete, or somebody
that's recovering from an injuryis that static stretching and
different types of stretchingare actually very ineffective.
(07:48):
Instead, just try to replicatethe demands, try to do some
strength training beforehand,which is like lighter amounts of
strength training.
My, my rule of thumb, especiallyif.
I am a person that squats andpowerlifts is that the best
warmup for a squat is notstretching your quad.
It's not taking your musclesthrough extensive ranges of
motion.
Simply the best warmup for asquat is simply a squat.
(08:12):
If you're going to squat 200pounds, try to squat something
that's 80 to a hundred pounds,something that's going to just
replicate that demand.
And that in itself will takeyour knees, your hips, your
ankles, your lower back throughthe range of motions needed in
order to complete that task.
So strengthening in itself.
Is actually the warmup versusstretching seem to be
(08:34):
ineffective in majority ofcases.
So lastly, in a large amount ofstudies, static stretching for
longer than 120 seconds can, andin most cases reduce maximal
power output from the involvedmusculature.
and can be extremely detrimentalto athletic performance, which
if there is any significantdecreases to performance, you
(08:55):
can infer a potential increasedinjury as well under any fatigue
driven conditions.
Now, this doesn't mean thatstretching is completely
insignificant, but acutelyimmediately pre or post these
studies show that stretchingeither plays no significant role
to performance or causesdecrement to performance.
(09:16):
The Reuben at all actually did astudy and they called the
effects of stretching onstrength performance examine
many forms of stretchingchronically over time.
So this is basically comparingnow that acute stretching.
We've concluded that is not veryimportant, but there is very.
A very small, minute amount ofresearch that still gives
(09:39):
stretching some credibility.
And this was chronicallystretching over time.
And I'll tell you, there is akicker to this.
They harped on many studies ofstatic stretching being
detrimental, like we saidbefore.
And they did this on people thateither did a counter movement
jump or sprint speed.
And most, most often the case,static stretching reduced
performance in that sense.
But, they did take people thatdid not do any stretching.
(10:04):
During the workout, but insteadwhen they were at home, they did
perform a specific type ofstretching, which is called PNF
contract relax, which was donefive days a week for three
consecutive weeks.
And so what this means is calledperipheral neuromuscular
facilitation, which basicallyyou contract the muscle of
interest, followed by takingthat muscle through greater
(10:27):
ranges of motion passively.
So what they did show was thatdoing this for a three
consecutive week span, it showednot just significant gains in
flexibility, but also increasesin eccentric peak torque
measured at 120 and 60 degreesper second for the knee flexors
(10:47):
and extensors.
So while there is no researchbacking static stretching almost
at all, there is some benefit tospecifically PNF contract relax
done significantly over time,but in my clinical opinion, this
does actually make perfect sensebecause if you've seen my social
media or in my other podcast, Iam very heavily biased towards
(11:08):
strengthening over stretchingPNF again is a form of technique
where if you want to improve,let's say hamstring strength,
flexibility.
You will take the hamstring tonear end ranges of motion and
contract the hamstrings intoknee bending or hip extension
for 5 to 15 seconds.
Then you are to proceed intogreater hamstring length by
(11:30):
passively pulling the hamstringinto the opposite position.
And this is called autogenicinhibition.
An autogenic inhibition iscontraction of the involved
muscle group to then relax themuscle further.
Hence the name inhibition, whichis you contract the muscle.
Once you relax it, it actuallyrelaxes more, allowing you to
get greater ranges of motion.
(11:51):
But PNF is often preceded withcontracting the knee extensors.
So let's say if you gained morehamstring flexibility, you can
contract the quadricep and thehip flexors.
in order to take your legthrough greater ranges of
motion.
And this is what we callreciprocal inhibition.
Nonetheless, PNF, even thoughit's somewhat in the stretching
(12:14):
category, it is actually acombination of isometrically
contracting the muscles, which Iperceive it more as a strength
training protocol versus astretching protocol.
All right.
So hopefully that makes sensethat Static stretching, very
little relevance, but PNF, whenyou do combine it with some sort
of contraction of the involvedmusculature or the opposite
(12:38):
musculature, that can enhanceyour flexibility and it can
reduce your chance of injury andincreased performance.
All right.
So lastly, let's dive intonumber three and number three is
can stretching actually reducepain?
And the answer to this is italso depends.
(13:01):
So the answer right now isresearch shows that acute bouts
of any form of stretching canreduce pain short term, but the
effects are short live.
I'm personally still a big fanof isometric strength,
strengthening, which is where agiven muscle group in pain is
(13:22):
contracted for 20 to 60 secondsat 3 to 5 reps.
And research shows that it canreduce pain significantly, but
also increase range of motion ofa given joint and increase
tensile strength, which isnoteworthy for those with
tendonitis or chronictendinosis.
(13:42):
A study compared theeffectiveness of isometric
strengthening with staticstretching versus static
stretching alone in nonspecificchronic neck pain.
So they took 52 patientsrandomly assigned to receive
either isometric training oftheir neck muscles combined with
static stretching versus staticstretching alone.
(14:03):
And both groups were alsoassigned for a general aerobic
training protocol.
Now, the research concluded thatboth groups after one month of
consistency had some improvementto pain scale and the neck
disability index score.
However, the group that addedisometric strength had greater
improvements on the disabilityindex scale.
(14:24):
Now, if you are working outthough, there is some research
to back that dynamic forms ofstretching can reduce the
duration of delayed onset musclesoreness, inclusive of static
stretching.
Anecdotally speaking, and thatmeans in my clinical opinion,
and in my experience withworking out.
I find that static stretchingactually increases the duration
(14:44):
of DOMS, which is delayed onsetmuscle soreness.
I believe that other, aftermuscles have been broken down
through strength training, thatpulling muscles apart further
through static stretchingactually can cause more micro
damage.
And I don't have research inthis, but this is just after
years of trying this aftermultiple bouts of workouts is
that it actually increases.
(15:05):
My duration of Dom's and also itdecreases my performance, but
for me, a combination of selfmassage, foam, rolling, dynamic,
stretching, active recovery, andother things that we've talked
about in other podcastsepisodes, but a large amount of
protein and sleep have been themost effective to decrease the
late onset muscle soreness andincrease athletic performance.
(15:28):
And rather than just presentingthe research to you, which can
be intriguing for some.
But boring for some otherlisteners.
I can tell you firsthand that 99percent of my clients benefit
more from a strength trainingprotocol over a stretching
protocol, as much as doctors,PTs, chiros, even personal
trainers, prescribed staticstretching for pain.
I've seen time and time again,that these patients rarely get
(15:51):
long term relief and in fact,continuously get flare ups of
pain.
So I'll give you an example.
I had a client named Carol, whoshe had.
years of neck pain.
She had two kids.
She was on to her third, but herprotocol and what doctors told
her was if you have neck pain,just simply stretch out your
upper traps, simply side bendyour ear or look towards your
(16:12):
armpit and hold that for 30 to60 seconds.
And that is enough.
That's all you need to reducepain.
So she followed that.
And quite frankly enough, afterdoing that for years and seeing
Cairo's PTs and seeing a bunchof people and having her
husband, basically massage herevery single day she was fed up.
She was having more pain.
(16:33):
She felt like her neck was veryunstable.
She felt that after 10 to 20minutes of just sitting with her
kids.
That she needed to lie down andrest and put a heat pack on her
neck.
So when I met her, she was in apretty debilitated state.
Basically when I did talk to herand she was considering working
with me, she was not sitting ata table.
(16:54):
At our home in Texas, she wasnot sitting.
She was actually lying down withher neck rested against a
pillow.
All right.
So that's another topic to talkabout, which is basically
bedrest being one of the worstthings you can do for long term
pain relief.
But she was talking to me andshe's yeah, I can't even hold my
neck up for longer than 20minutes.
And in my opinion, when you'relooking at that long term.
effects of static stretching,like we talked about decreases
(17:16):
her performance.
She wasn't even a high levelathlete.
She was just a stay at home.
Mom had a lot of job demands, alot of chores, a lot of things
to do, but she was not gettingrelief.
And in fact, her performance athome was getting much worse and
she couldn't do her job as.
Mom, she couldn't cook.
She couldn't do anything.
And I think it's honestlybecause all she did was static
stretching.
(17:38):
Her neck was very much unstable.
When you do a lot of staticstretching long term, you're
just pulling the sarcomeresapart.
You're pulling that muscle apartand It's rendering it
ineffective and unable to dothings such as just keeping your
head on, on his body.
So what I instead had her do wasI just started having her do
isometric strengthening.
(17:58):
I told her that you need tostart breathing more because
that can at least calm thenervous system down.
I gave her a number of foamrolling, dynamic stretching,
stretching exercises to reducesome stiffness in the shoulders
and her upper back, the areasbelow her neck.
And then I actually got herhusband involved and this wasn't
her husband.
I actually saved her husband,her, his thumbs, because he was
(18:20):
massaging her neck every day.
Instead, what he instead didwith his hands was I told him to
apply pressure to differentparts of her neck.
And I just had her sit for 30 to60 seconds.
And he started applying pressureto the right side of her head,
left side to forward andbackwards, applying pressure to
different parts of her shouldersand her spine.
(18:41):
And she started to gain morestability.
And after just two days, shereported that her pain went from
an eight out of 10 every singleday to basically a three.
And then we started to progressto dumbbell training.
I had her buy a set ofdumbbells.
I had her buy a set of bands.
I told her to throw out the heatpack or put that into the
closet.
(19:01):
And she started getting onto alegitimate strength training
protocol.
Which again, after two days, shewas experiencing significant
relief.
And then after that, she notedthat after she was doing the
strength training, that her bodyfelt way more conditioned, she
was ready for her third kid tocome out and she had no issues
whatsoever.
And I think to this day, shecontinues to strength train.
(19:24):
She does not do any more staticstretching because.
If she does, it's to feel goodjust in that moment.
But she replaces a lot of thatwith her isometric strength
training protocols.
She moves a lot more.
She strength trainsconsistently.
And I think that's where themoney's at.
When, if you're somebody that'sstruggling with chronic pain, as
of now, is that to consider thatstatic stretching can feel short
(19:46):
term.
Good.
It can feel good when you'resitting at your computer, but as
you can see in the long term, Ifelt that caused extreme
detriment, not just to Carol'sperformance, but also her pain
levels as well.
Okay.
So I wanted to just concludethis with lastly, two frames of
thought.
So I know we answered the threequestions, but I want to leave
(20:07):
you with two more frames ofthought, connecting the
stretching with pain reduction.
So in the short term, it alwaysfeels good to stretch.
I can even say that if I pull myheel towards my butt right now,
I can tell that, man, that feelslike a good quad stretch.
If I pull my right ear toward myright shoulder, I can tell that,
man, that feels good on my leftside of my neck, but your brain
(20:30):
is always going to be veryreceptive to the stretch reflex,
and I think it's more ingrainedinto us because society, either
on social media or.
Or let's say a lot of picturesand let's say screenshots and
things that are presented to us.
There's a lot of pamphlets thatjust show a bunch of static
stretches.
It continues to push forstretching as the means for
(20:50):
longevity.
But in this episode, we have nowfound that strength training and
a mixture of different types ofstretching, specifically PNF.
can be effective to help youwith increasing your longevity,
your joint range of motion, butalso increasing your
performance.
We have still not factored inthough, that the entire pain
(21:11):
experience relies on otherpivotal factors, such as your
nutrition, your stress levels,your sleep quality, and self
reported perceptions of ourhealth.
So take what I said, intoaccount with all the different
research and anecdotal evidenceI'm supplying to you, but
understand that doesn't evencover half the picture of the
pain experience.
You have to address your habits,how you perceive your own
(21:34):
health.
People don't realize that if youperceive your health as it's
going downhill, that youactually will slide downhill and
you won't take much actionstowards improving your health.
And take into account stress,sleep and nutrition, all big
pieces.
So that when you decide that,Hey, strength training is the
long term plan that you need torecover from that in the form of
(21:54):
decreasing stress, optimizingyour nutrition and optimizing
your sleep quality and quantity.
So we cannot discount stretchingas somewhat therapeutic in the
short term, but you can stretchat work while sitting at your
desk and get some relief.
But chronically over time, thereis still to this day, very
little research on this now,unless it's PNF contract relaxed
specifically.
(22:14):
And that was only one researcharticle.
But my last concludingstatement, number two is if you
are trying to improve yourperformance and decrease your
risk for injury and ensuingpain, You must consider that
value of strength training forall of these things.
If you take in the followingresearch I've given you today,
the only time at whichstretching was beneficial is
peripheral neuromuscularfacilitation.
(22:35):
And that is something that I canshow you or another PT can show
you, but all of which that ifstretching had any relevance
whatsoever, it was combined witheither isometric strengthening,
or it was combined with somesort of actual contraction of
the musculature at hand.
So as I would tell my clients inthe pain free academy all the
(22:56):
time, there is nothing wrongwith getting strong strength
training consistently over thelong term will cover the basis
of reducing pain, reducingchances of injury, decreasing
perception of disability, andincreasing your ability to do
more things long term.
And this is why I rarely stretchfor anything, why I rarely
prescribe it and why majority ofmy programs that I prescribe are
(23:19):
strength training protocols.
A little bit of mobility fortimes that you're stagnant, like
sitting at a desk, honing in onyour stress, sleep, and
nutrition.
And I think right there is thewhole pie.
That is a great protocol forthose that are either just
simply trying to increase theirathletic performance, decrease
the risk for injury, or if youdo have any chronic pain, I
(23:40):
highly suggest that you reviewthis episode time and time again
to.
Connect the dots.
So stretch if you want, justdon't consider it a long term
solution.
If you have pain or looking toincrease your performance.
So that's what I got for youtoday.
If you enjoyed this episode,definitely hit that subscriber
follow button, share thisepisode onto your social media.
(24:01):
I do release episodes.
Every morning on Wednesdays.
And I love if you can also leavea revealing rating or review on
your podcast.
So my content will reach morepeople who could benefit from
the tips I put out.
And if there is any feedbackabout the content I'm putting
out good or bad, or if there'sany specific things you want me
to cover in future episodes,send me a quick text to 4 1 5 9
(24:23):
6 5 6 5 8 0, or email me atjason@flexwithdoctorjay.com com.
And I reply to all my messagespersonally.
And I'll leave you always withthese last words of advice.
We only have one body, one life,make every action you take, be
the one that makes you a betterversion of you.
Take care.
Welcome to the Won Body Won LifePodcast.
Hi, I'm your host, Dr.
Jason Won lifestyle, physicaltherapist.
I talk about everything healthand wellness related.
So you too can have a moreresilient body and a more
fulfilling life.
If you haven't yet, pleasesupport the channel by hitting
that subscribe or follow button.
So you never miss out on anotherpodcast episode.
Also, if you could please leavea review or ranking before
leaving this episode, that waymore people will be able to
(00:25):
benefit from the content of mypodcast.
Today, I wanted to talk about aheavily debated topic.
Is stretching effective?
And that's a very blanketedstatement that can then be
transferred to many aspects ofour health.
And I'll keep this concise andbreak this down into three easy
questions that you might wantanswers for.
Number one, is stretching goodfor reducing injuries?
(00:48):
And number two is stretchinggood for performance
enhancement.
And lastly, number three isstretching good for reduction in
pain levels.
Since many of us are alreadytime strapped and it's already
hard to prioritize exercise, weneed to dive into the research
and also a mixture of myclinical opinion to see if
stretching is effective.
For anything, so let's dive intothis now.
(01:11):
So number one is stretching goodfor reducing injuries.
And the answer is not really.
The research hardly backs thatany form of stretching actually
reduces your chance of injury.
A large systematic review byLarson et al in 2014 examined
multiple studies on stretchingand injury prevention.
And they evaluated the resultsof 26, 000 people who between
(01:35):
them had experienced 3, 500injuries.
And they found that good balancereduced injury by 35%.
Better strength reduced injuryrisk by nearly 70%.
And stretching.
Stretching did not reduceinjuries significantly at all.
And this was taken into accountall forms of stretching.
And in my clinical opinion, ifyou're doing immense amounts of
(01:57):
stretching before workout toreduce your chances of injury,
taking your muscles throughextensive lengths of motion can
actually increase your risk forinjury.
More about this later when weanswer the question about
performance.
But if you are prepping for asport, let's say.
Such as running and you're doinga ton of reaching for your toes
to get a nice hamstring stretch.
You really don't need thatamount of range of motion to
(02:19):
run.
You're mostly upright and doingmajority of your task unless
you're running uphill, whichaccounts for a little bit of hip
hinge and a little bit morehamstring stress.
But hinging that far andstretching your hamstrings
before an activity will not doyou any good.
And an adequate warm up ofrunning drills that are more
specific to the task at handwould be more beneficial.
(02:42):
So taking this into account isthat when you are thinking about
stretching and reducing injury,you want to think of something
which I call S.
A.
I.
D.
And what that stands for isSpecific Adaptations to Imposed
Demands.
And so this means that if youwant to reduce your chances of
injury, let's say for anothersport, such as tennis, you need
(03:04):
to ensure that in a gym settingor at a home gym, that you're
replicating those exact demandsvia the form of using dumbbells,
bands, kettlebells, or any formof resistance training that will
greatly increase your.
Athletic performance, it'llincrease the 10 cell strength of
your tendons and muscles andbones, so that it gets used to
(03:26):
the demands of tennis.
But if you're thinking about Ineed to stretch my chest or
stretch my hamstrings or stretchmy calf in order to reduce my
chances of injury.
The research doesn't really backthat.
Instead, think about SED, whichis Specific Adaptations to
Imposed Demands.
Now, there is some relevance tostatic stretching.
(03:48):
Now, let's say if you are agymnast and you need to be in
very flexible positions, then itdoes make sense to sometimes
take certain joints and musclesthrough larger ranges of motion.
Or let's say if you are abaseball player.
Occasionally, it may bebeneficial for you to stretch
your pectoral long term.
So that way you do get moreshoulder external rotation when
(04:11):
you do decide to throw abaseball, but rarely in any
circumstance would you say thatstatic stretching would be
beneficial for reducing injuryand sometimes may actually
increase your risk for injury.
So more about this in our secondquestion, which is stretching
good for performanceenhancement?
And the answer to that is itactually depends on duration and
(04:33):
when you stretch.
So let's take static stretching,for example.
And for some of you guys thatdon't know static stretching,
what that is, is any stretchheld from 30 to 120 seconds.
And in one research study, Theyexamined the effects of static
stretching on sprint performancein collegiate track and field
athletes.
Research reported actually a 3percent decrease in sprinting
(04:57):
performance on a 40 meterfollowing pre event static
stretching.
An amazing study by Wallman etal.
2012 examined the effects ofacute static.
Dynamic as well as ballisticstretching and no stretching of
the ilio psoas muscle on a 40yard sprint time in 18 to 37
(05:17):
year old non competitiverecreational runners.
So to break that down before wedive into the results, acute
static means that immediatelybefore That sprint event is that
they do that 30 to 120 secondstatic stretch.
Dynamic stretching is moremovement based.
So there is some evidence toshow that dynamic increases
(05:38):
warmth of the tissues canincrease joint pliability and is
a little bit more effective thanstatic stretching.
So they all said dynamic andthen ballistic stretching is
basically taking a certain jointthrough very fast velocity
ranges of motion.
So if you're swinging your Armin a circular fashion, multiple
times at a very fast speed thatis more considered ballistic
(05:59):
stretching versus dynamic.
And again, the fourth thing thatthey measured and that they did
research on was a group that didno stretching at all of the
Iliopsoas muscle, which is a hipflexor muscle important for
sprinters and runners.
In eye popping fashion, theresults concluded that there
were no statistical differencesin sprint time for ballistic,
(06:22):
dynamic, or acute staticstretching, and the only
significant improvements camefrom the no stretching group.
And they simply warmed up andwalked on a treadmill.
Now for me, this was very eyepopping research because when
you look at people that requirefast velocity movements, such as
sprinters, is that forms ofstretching can actually reduce
(06:44):
your performance and reduce yoursprint speed.
But if you don't do anystretching, you simply just warm
up the tissues or you dospecific exercises beforehand.
That again, replicate thedemands of sprinting.
So let's say high knees or buttkicks or different things, which
takes your joints through theranges of motion required to
(07:05):
complete that task, that isactually much more effective
than ballistic stretching.
So if you think about swingingyour leg up and down which is
like a dynamic hamstring stretchor swinging your leg side to
side, which would stretch outyour groins and your hips, even
though that seems relevant, andthese are things that.
I actually did in the pastbefore squats and deadlifts that
actually is ineffective forimproving sprint speed or
(07:28):
improving significantperformance in many realms of
athletes.
So hopefully this can be veryrelevant.
If you are somebody that istrying to improve their
performance, if you are a coachor an athlete, or somebody
that's recovering from an injuryis that static stretching and
different types of stretchingare actually very ineffective.
(07:48):
Instead, just try to replicatethe demands, try to do some
strength training beforehand,which is like lighter amounts of
strength training.
My, my rule of thumb, especiallyif.
I am a person that squats andpowerlifts is that the best
warmup for a squat is notstretching your quad.
It's not taking your musclesthrough extensive ranges of
motion.
Simply the best warmup for asquat is simply a squat.
(08:12):
If you're going to squat 200pounds, try to squat something
that's 80 to a hundred pounds,something that's going to just
replicate that demand.
And that in itself will takeyour knees, your hips, your
ankles, your lower back throughthe range of motions needed in
order to complete that task.
So strengthening in itself.
Is actually the warmup versusstretching seem to be
(08:34):
ineffective in majority ofcases.
So lastly, in a large amount ofstudies, static stretching for
longer than 120 seconds can, andin most cases reduce maximal
power output from the involvedmusculature.
and can be extremely detrimentalto athletic performance, which
if there is any significantdecreases to performance, you
(08:55):
can infer a potential increasedinjury as well under any fatigue
driven conditions.
Now, this doesn't mean thatstretching is completely
insignificant, but acutelyimmediately pre or post these
studies show that stretchingeither plays no significant role
to performance or causesdecrement to performance.
(09:16):
The Reuben at all actually did astudy and they called the
effects of stretching onstrength performance examine
many forms of stretchingchronically over time.
So this is basically comparingnow that acute stretching.
We've concluded that is not veryimportant, but there is very.
A very small, minute amount ofresearch that still gives
(09:39):
stretching some credibility.
And this was chronicallystretching over time.
And I'll tell you, there is akicker to this.
They harped on many studies ofstatic stretching being
detrimental, like we saidbefore.
And they did this on people thateither did a counter movement
jump or sprint speed.
And most, most often the case,static stretching reduced
performance in that sense.
But, they did take people thatdid not do any stretching.
(10:04):
During the workout, but insteadwhen they were at home, they did
perform a specific type ofstretching, which is called PNF
contract relax, which was donefive days a week for three
consecutive weeks.
And so what this means is calledperipheral neuromuscular
facilitation, which basicallyyou contract the muscle of
interest, followed by takingthat muscle through greater
(10:27):
ranges of motion passively.
So what they did show was thatdoing this for a three
consecutive week span, it showednot just significant gains in
flexibility, but also increasesin eccentric peak torque
measured at 120 and 60 degreesper second for the knee flexors
(10:47):
and extensors.
So while there is no researchbacking static stretching almost
at all, there is some benefit tospecifically PNF contract relax
done significantly over time,but in my clinical opinion, this
does actually make perfect sensebecause if you've seen my social
media or in my other podcast, Iam very heavily biased towards
(11:08):
strengthening over stretchingPNF again is a form of technique
where if you want to improve,let's say hamstring strength,
flexibility.
You will take the hamstring tonear end ranges of motion and
contract the hamstrings intoknee bending or hip extension
for 5 to 15 seconds.
Then you are to proceed intogreater hamstring length by
(11:30):
passively pulling the hamstringinto the opposite position.
And this is called autogenicinhibition.
An autogenic inhibition iscontraction of the involved
muscle group to then relax themuscle further.
Hence the name inhibition, whichis you contract the muscle.
Once you relax it, it actuallyrelaxes more, allowing you to
get greater ranges of motion.
(11:51):
But PNF is often preceded withcontracting the knee extensors.
So let's say if you gained morehamstring flexibility, you can
contract the quadricep and thehip flexors.
in order to take your legthrough greater ranges of
motion.
And this is what we callreciprocal inhibition.
Nonetheless, PNF, even thoughit's somewhat in the stretching
(12:14):
category, it is actually acombination of isometrically
contracting the muscles, which Iperceive it more as a strength
training protocol versus astretching protocol.
All right.
So hopefully that makes sensethat Static stretching, very
little relevance, but PNF, whenyou do combine it with some sort
of contraction of the involvedmusculature or the opposite
(12:38):
musculature, that can enhanceyour flexibility and it can
reduce your chance of injury andincreased performance.
All right.
So lastly, let's dive intonumber three and number three is
can stretching actually reducepain?
And the answer to this is italso depends.
(13:01):
So the answer right now isresearch shows that acute bouts
of any form of stretching canreduce pain short term, but the
effects are short live.
I'm personally still a big fanof isometric strength,
strengthening, which is where agiven muscle group in pain is
(13:22):
contracted for 20 to 60 secondsat 3 to 5 reps.
And research shows that it canreduce pain significantly, but
also increase range of motion ofa given joint and increase
tensile strength, which isnoteworthy for those with
tendonitis or chronictendinosis.
(13:42):
A study compared theeffectiveness of isometric
strengthening with staticstretching versus static
stretching alone in nonspecificchronic neck pain.
So they took 52 patientsrandomly assigned to receive
either isometric training oftheir neck muscles combined with
static stretching versus staticstretching alone.
(14:03):
And both groups were alsoassigned for a general aerobic
training protocol.
Now, the research concluded thatboth groups after one month of
consistency had some improvementto pain scale and the neck
disability index score.
However, the group that addedisometric strength had greater
improvements on the disabilityindex scale.
(14:24):
Now, if you are working outthough, there is some research
to back that dynamic forms ofstretching can reduce the
duration of delayed onset musclesoreness, inclusive of static
stretching.
Anecdotally speaking, and thatmeans in my clinical opinion,
and in my experience withworking out.
I find that static stretchingactually increases the duration
(14:44):
of DOMS, which is delayed onsetmuscle soreness.
I believe that other, aftermuscles have been broken down
through strength training, thatpulling muscles apart further
through static stretchingactually can cause more micro
damage.
And I don't have research inthis, but this is just after
years of trying this aftermultiple bouts of workouts is
that it actually increases.
(15:05):
My duration of Dom's and also itdecreases my performance, but
for me, a combination of selfmassage, foam, rolling, dynamic,
stretching, active recovery, andother things that we've talked
about in other podcastsepisodes, but a large amount of
protein and sleep have been themost effective to decrease the
late onset muscle soreness andincrease athletic performance.
(15:28):
And rather than just presentingthe research to you, which can
be intriguing for some.
But boring for some otherlisteners.
I can tell you firsthand that 99percent of my clients benefit
more from a strength trainingprotocol over a stretching
protocol, as much as doctors,PTs, chiros, even personal
trainers, prescribed staticstretching for pain.
I've seen time and time again,that these patients rarely get
(15:51):
long term relief and in fact,continuously get flare ups of
pain.
So I'll give you an example.
I had a client named Carol, whoshe had.
years of neck pain.
She had two kids.
She was on to her third, but herprotocol and what doctors told
her was if you have neck pain,just simply stretch out your
upper traps, simply side bendyour ear or look towards your
(16:12):
armpit and hold that for 30 to60 seconds.
And that is enough.
That's all you need to reducepain.
So she followed that.
And quite frankly enough, afterdoing that for years and seeing
Cairo's PTs and seeing a bunchof people and having her
husband, basically massage herevery single day she was fed up.
She was having more pain.
(16:33):
She felt like her neck was veryunstable.
She felt that after 10 to 20minutes of just sitting with her
kids.
That she needed to lie down andrest and put a heat pack on her
neck.
So when I met her, she was in apretty debilitated state.
Basically when I did talk to herand she was considering working
with me, she was not sitting ata table.
(16:54):
At our home in Texas, she wasnot sitting.
She was actually lying down withher neck rested against a
pillow.
All right.
So that's another topic to talkabout, which is basically
bedrest being one of the worstthings you can do for long term
pain relief.
But she was talking to me andshe's yeah, I can't even hold my
neck up for longer than 20minutes.
And in my opinion, when you'relooking at that long term.
effects of static stretching,like we talked about decreases
(17:16):
her performance.
She wasn't even a high levelathlete.
She was just a stay at home.
Mom had a lot of job demands, alot of chores, a lot of things
to do, but she was not gettingrelief.
And in fact, her performance athome was getting much worse and
she couldn't do her job as.
Mom, she couldn't cook.
She couldn't do anything.
And I think it's honestlybecause all she did was static
stretching.
(17:38):
Her neck was very much unstable.
When you do a lot of staticstretching long term, you're
just pulling the sarcomeresapart.
You're pulling that muscle apartand It's rendering it
ineffective and unable to dothings such as just keeping your
head on, on his body.
So what I instead had her do wasI just started having her do
isometric strengthening.
(17:58):
I told her that you need tostart breathing more because
that can at least calm thenervous system down.
I gave her a number of foamrolling, dynamic stretching,
stretching exercises to reducesome stiffness in the shoulders
and her upper back, the areasbelow her neck.
And then I actually got herhusband involved and this wasn't
her husband.
I actually saved her husband,her, his thumbs, because he was
(18:20):
massaging her neck every day.
Instead, what he instead didwith his hands was I told him to
apply pressure to differentparts of her neck.
And I just had her sit for 30 to60 seconds.
And he started applying pressureto the right side of her head,
left side to forward andbackwards, applying pressure to
different parts of her shouldersand her spine.
(18:41):
And she started to gain morestability.
And after just two days, shereported that her pain went from
an eight out of 10 every singleday to basically a three.
And then we started to progressto dumbbell training.
I had her buy a set ofdumbbells.
I had her buy a set of bands.
I told her to throw out the heatpack or put that into the
closet.
(19:01):
And she started getting onto alegitimate strength training
protocol.
Which again, after two days, shewas experiencing significant
relief.
And then after that, she notedthat after she was doing the
strength training, that her bodyfelt way more conditioned, she
was ready for her third kid tocome out and she had no issues
whatsoever.
And I think to this day, shecontinues to strength train.
(19:24):
She does not do any more staticstretching because.
If she does, it's to feel goodjust in that moment.
But she replaces a lot of thatwith her isometric strength
training protocols.
She moves a lot more.
She strength trainsconsistently.
And I think that's where themoney's at.
When, if you're somebody that'sstruggling with chronic pain, as
of now, is that to consider thatstatic stretching can feel short
(19:46):
term.
Good.
It can feel good when you'resitting at your computer, but as
you can see in the long term, Ifelt that caused extreme
detriment, not just to Carol'sperformance, but also her pain
levels as well.
Okay.
So I wanted to just concludethis with lastly, two frames of
thought.
So I know we answered the threequestions, but I want to leave
(20:07):
you with two more frames ofthought, connecting the
stretching with pain reduction.
So in the short term, it alwaysfeels good to stretch.
I can even say that if I pull myheel towards my butt right now,
I can tell that, man, that feelslike a good quad stretch.
If I pull my right ear toward myright shoulder, I can tell that,
man, that feels good on my leftside of my neck, but your brain
(20:30):
is always going to be veryreceptive to the stretch reflex,
and I think it's more ingrainedinto us because society, either
on social media or.
Or let's say a lot of picturesand let's say screenshots and
things that are presented to us.
There's a lot of pamphlets thatjust show a bunch of static
stretches.
It continues to push forstretching as the means for
(20:50):
longevity.
But in this episode, we have nowfound that strength training and
a mixture of different types ofstretching, specifically PNF.
can be effective to help youwith increasing your longevity,
your joint range of motion, butalso increasing your
performance.
We have still not factored inthough, that the entire pain
(21:11):
experience relies on otherpivotal factors, such as your
nutrition, your stress levels,your sleep quality, and self
reported perceptions of ourhealth.
So take what I said, intoaccount with all the different
research and anecdotal evidenceI'm supplying to you, but
understand that doesn't evencover half the picture of the
pain experience.
You have to address your habits,how you perceive your own
(21:34):
health.
People don't realize that if youperceive your health as it's
going downhill, that youactually will slide downhill and
you won't take much actionstowards improving your health.
And take into account stress,sleep and nutrition, all big
pieces.
So that when you decide that,Hey, strength training is the
long term plan that you need torecover from that in the form of
(21:54):
decreasing stress, optimizingyour nutrition and optimizing
your sleep quality and quantity.
So we cannot discount stretchingas somewhat therapeutic in the
short term, but you can stretchat work while sitting at your
desk and get some relief.
But chronically over time, thereis still to this day, very
little research on this now,unless it's PNF contract relaxed
specifically.
(22:14):
And that was only one researcharticle.
But my last concludingstatement, number two is if you
are trying to improve yourperformance and decrease your
risk for injury and ensuingpain, You must consider that
value of strength training forall of these things.
If you take in the followingresearch I've given you today,
the only time at whichstretching was beneficial is
peripheral neuromuscularfacilitation.
(22:35):
And that is something that I canshow you or another PT can show
you, but all of which that ifstretching had any relevance
whatsoever, it was combined witheither isometric strengthening,
or it was combined with somesort of actual contraction of
the musculature at hand.
So as I would tell my clients inthe pain free academy all the
(22:56):
time, there is nothing wrongwith getting strong strength
training consistently over thelong term will cover the basis
of reducing pain, reducingchances of injury, decreasing
perception of disability, andincreasing your ability to do
more things long term.
And this is why I rarely stretchfor anything, why I rarely
prescribe it and why majority ofmy programs that I prescribe are
(23:19):
strength training protocols.
A little bit of mobility fortimes that you're stagnant, like
sitting at a desk, honing in onyour stress, sleep, and
nutrition.
And I think right there is thewhole pie.
That is a great protocol forthose that are either just
simply trying to increase theirathletic performance, decrease
the risk for injury, or if youdo have any chronic pain, I
(23:40):
highly suggest that you reviewthis episode time and time again
to.
Connect the dots.
So stretch if you want, justdon't consider it a long term
solution.
If you have pain or looking toincrease your performance.
So that's what I got for youtoday.
If you enjoyed this episode,definitely hit that subscriber
follow button, share thisepisode onto your social media.
(24:01):
I do release episodes.
Every morning on Wednesdays.
And I love if you can also leavea revealing rating or review on
your podcast.
So my content will reach morepeople who could benefit from
the tips I put out.
And if there is any feedbackabout the content I'm putting
out good or bad, or if there'sany specific things you want me
to cover in future episodes,send me a quick text to 4 1 5 9
(24:23):
6 5 6 5 8 0, or email me atjason@flexwithdoctorjay.com com.
And I reply to all my messagespersonally.
And I'll leave you always withthese last words of advice.
We only have one body, one life,make every action you take, be
the one that makes you a betterversion of you.
Take care.
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