The reader must be aware that warm up and stretches must prepare your body for the task at hand. Therefore pre-participation methods should be used to best prepare the part of your body that you are going to use. I.e. there is no point stretching your legs if your arms are going to be doing all the work. Why would you warm up on a bike if you are going to be running? The key word is specificity!
From the evidence base, a warm up of at least 5 minutes duration plus an inclusion of at least 5 X 30 second stretches to increase muscle length and reduce passive resistance to stretch may help in reducing the risk of injury. Effects from stretching seem to be optimal immediately prior to activity.
Stretching methods:
Static stretch – The muscle is taken to the end of range and held for an extended period. This can be performed independently or with a partner.
Dynamic stretch – consists of controlled swinging of the limbs that gradually and gently increases the length of the muscle. (This differs from ballistic stretching which forces the muscle beyond its range of motion and is not recommended due to it causing micro trauma within the tissues).
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Fascilitation (PNF) stretching – There are many different techniques of PNF stretching but all involve a muscle contraction followed by a stretch. This type of stretch is very difficult to perform independently and usually requires a partner.
Although there is evidence that stretching has a benefit of increasing muscle length, the evidence is not consistent on what is the best stretching regime pre-exercise . However, if the evidence is not clear regarding pre-participation stretching, the effects of post participation stretching are almost universally accepted as being beneficial. Although it does not directly reduce the risk of injury, stretching post exercise prevents shortening or contracture of the exercised muscles. Muscle contracture that is allowed to remain in a shortened state can have a negative effect on an individual’s posture and cause a prolonged stress on ligaments and joints eventually causing weakness and injury.
