SPORTS MEDICINE BLOG
Q:
Will stretching help?
A. No matter what the sport, you will see athletes on the ground,
trying to manipulate their bodies into weird contortions in an effort to
stretch out tight muscles. What happens when you overstretch a rubber band?
It snaps!
The same thing applies to muscles,
ligaments,
tendons, and joints.
Stretching these structures in the traditional sense will put the athlete at
risk for tearing one of them. It is not a natural phenomenon to lay on the
ground and hold the body in some strange position until it hurts. The
hurting sensation means that something is going to tear if the athlete does
not stop. This passive type of stretching can lead to loose, stretched
tissue. The problem with this is that these ligaments, tendons, muscles, and
joints are made weaker by the stretching. Stretched tissue is easily
injured. Traditional passive stretching does not decrease incidence of
sports injuries. It increases them.
Increasing flexibility is one of the keys for the athlete to prevent injury.
This must be done with muscle strength control. This training involves
strengthening the muscles around the joint, which will, in turn, naturally
increase the flexibility of the antagonistic muscles. A good example of this
is an athlete who desires to increase hamstring muscle flexibility.
Traditional passive stretching would involve getting into some weird
contortion and bending over until it hurt. This usually hurts the back, as
well as the hamstrings. Nothing was accomplished toward strengthening the
hamstrings or the quadriceps muscles in the leg. Muscle strength control
training involves leg lifts, kicks that increase the strength of the
quadriceps of the leg, or leg strengthening exercises which then have the
reciprocal effect of stretching the hamstrings. The ultimate result is a
longer stride length for the runner, and stronger thigh and leg muscles,
which can aid any athlete.
Article by
Ross Hauser, M.D.
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