Stretching Benefit #3: Improved Performance
Research is equivocal on whether stretching improves athletic performance, said Joe Yoon, a sports massage therapist in Orlando, Florida, and author of Better Stretching.
“But I’ve always taken the approach that if you can improve your range of motion and get into positions” required for your sport, you’ll probably perform better, with less risk for injury, Mr. Yoon said.
It’s worth noting that some research over the past 30 years has linked pre-exercise static stretching with a loss of strength, power, and/or speed.
But consider this: In a 2016 review, Dr. Behm and his coauthors showed that performance reductions were most likely to occur in two situations:
When participants did extremely long stretches (duration, ≥ 60 sec per muscle).
When researchers tested the participants’ strength, power, or speed immediately after they stretched.
Avoiding those problems is easy, Dr. Behm said: Stretch each muscle for < 60 sec, and combine static stretches with more active warm-up exercises.
“Stretching can impair your performance but only if you do it wrong,” he said.
Stretching Benefit #4: Fewer Injuries
When you stretch, the point where you feel tension is where the muscle is most vulnerable. “That’s where injuries usually happen,” Dr. Behm said.
More flexibility in those areas allows your muscles to safely generate force at longer lengths. For an athlete, that means fewer injuries when they’re doing explosive movements or changing direction.
For nonathletes, flexibility reduces injuries by improving balance. Better balance reduces the risk of falling and helps mitigate the damage if you do take a tumble.
Help Your Patients Get the Benefits of Stretching
Stretching, like training for endurance or strength, can be as complex as you want to make it. But Mr. Yoon advocates a simpler approach.
“You see this flashy stuff online,” he said. “But if you see those trainers in real life or you book a session with them, they go right back to the basics.”
Ideally, Mr. Yoon said, a flexibility routine will work the entire body. But if that’s too big a stretch for your patient, he recommends starting with one or two stretches for the most problematic area.
For example, for a stiff back, try doing the puppy pose at least once a day, although twice is better. Hold the position for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, said Mr. Yoon. Even if you combine it with a dynamic movement like the cat-cow, the two exercises would take just a few minutes a day.
“There’s this misconception that you have to do a lot of it to be successful,” Mr. Yoon said.
Consistency is far more important than volume. Mr. Yoon recommends “a little bit every day — the minimum viable dose.”
As a bonus, stretching an area like your upper back will probably improve your shoulder mobility, Mr. Yoon said. Same with your lower body: Stretches for your hips, over time, should also benefit your knees and lower back.
And thanks to a phenomenon called nonlocal flexibility transfer, lower-body stretches should improve upper-body flexibility, at least temporarily. Shoulder stretches can also have an immediate effect on hip mobility.
“It’s all connected,” Mr. Yoon said, which brings us back to where we started.
If stretching can indeed reduce mortality risk, it’s probably because of interconnected pathways, rather than any single mechanism.
Most obviously, stretching improves flexibility, which makes movement easier, improves balance, and reduces the risk for falls and other types of injuries. It can also lead to small improvements in strength. Less obviously, stretching improves several aspects of cardiovascular function, including circulation.
“There seems to be a global effect in everything we do,” Dr. Behm said. “Whether you’re stretching or weight training, the message is sent throughout your body."
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.