STRETCHING before you exercise in a bid to prevent injuries is a waste of
time. So say Australian researchers who have advised the country鈥檚 army to
consign the tradition to the scrap heap.
Army physiotherapist Rod Pope, working with colleagues at the University of
Sydney and Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, has monitored more than 2600
army recruits over a year in randomised, controlled trials. Some of the recruits
stretched particular leg muscles before exercise; others did not. Yet there were
no differences in injury rates between the two groups鈥攁nd not just because
too few recruits in either group became injured to register a significant
effect. 鈥淲e were able to rule out even a quite small effect of stretching,鈥� says
Pope.
鈥淭his has not been properly researched before,鈥� he explains. 鈥淪tretching was
assumed to work in preventing injury, but there was no evidence to suggest it
诲颈诲.鈥�
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The work has been accepted for publication by Medicine and Science in
Sports and Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports
Medicine. 鈥淲e are telling the army to no longer stretch,鈥� says Pope. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 a
long tradition and tradition dies hard.鈥�
Despite this advice, Pope stresses that it is important to stretch muscles
which are tight and could restrict the normal range of movement. He also
suspects that stretching after exercise could be beneficial鈥攁lthough this
has not been fully investigated. 鈥淭here is no evidence that points unequivocally
one way or the other,鈥� says Robert Price of Deakin University in Melbourne.