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Q: Is stretching always necessary before physical activities?
A: Although flexibility has been a point of emphasis for decades in the fitness and athletic industries, these days many athletes exclude stretching before their athletic events without suffering injuries. Many athletes completely forgo any special stretching regimen. In the average person, stretching may also be unnecessary to begin an exercise bout, and a special stretching regimen may be superfluous for health and fitness.
Stretching may be useful in certain situations, such as in a rehabilitation setting where an individual’s loss of range of motion might have occurred as a result of an acute or chronic injury, requiring specialized stretching techniques to stimulate neural facilitory and inhibitory processes that may result in a gain (or regain) of functional range of motion. In those who have extreme tightness, however, static stretching (holding a stretch) before certain activities might be useful to increase the range of useful joint motion in order to facilitate specific movement patterns.
For the majority, pre-event stretching is not as necessary – if at all – since you can adequately and effectively use the actual movements of the activity in logical progression of intensity and ranges of motion. This process is sufficient to prepare the body for the serious work ahead. In this case, you simply begin the movement gently and with limited range of motion, progressing to higher intensity (or heavier loads) and greater range of motion, until the body feels warm and movement is smooth and unrestricted.
Studies have shown that static stretching before power-based events may be detrimental to force production. This, in turn, decreases performance, and therefore athletes of power-based sports tend to warm up with the progressive, activity-specific technique mentioned above.
So, stretch, if it makes you feel good. But in most cases, you don’t need to stretch before your physical activity. And if you perform your exercises in a full range of motion (which you should), a special stretching program may not be necessary. Instead, enjoy more time with your family, especially with the holidays coming up.
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