Stretching before exercise is as common an activity as brushing your teeth before bed. Warming up your joints, muscles, and ligaments helps keep them flexible to prevent injuries while you’re exercising…right?
In reality, the link between stretching and injury prevention may not be so clear. Many professionals believe that stretching before exercise does not prevent injuries. Others say that only certain types of stretching help.
So what is the connection between stretching and injury prevention? The best injury rehabilitation clinic in Jersey City, Exchange Physical Therapy Group, answers below.
Does Stretching Prevent Injuries? What You Need To Know
If you’ve ever participated in a sport or worked with an athletic trainer, chances are they advised you to stretch before exercising. Stretching is also a common component of workout warm-ups, but is stretching actually necessary before exercise, and can it really prevent injuries?
Stretching as a Method of Injury Prevention
Many professionals say that stretching does not directly prevent injuries. In particular, stretching the ligaments before exercising will not:
- Reduce your risk of experiencing an injury
- Warm up the body before exercise
- Facilitate faster healing after an injury
Professionals also have mixed feelings about whether stretching improves flexibility. Becoming more flexible typically involves more regimented flexibility training, which includes strengthening the desired muscle groups as well as improving their range of motion.
Still, being flexible isn’t necessary for all athletes, and it can even hinder certain athletic movements. Sometimes, being overly flexible could increase one’s risk of experiencing an injury, as it allows joints and muscles to extend past a normal range and weakens those areas.
If stretching did prevent injuries, the rate of sports injuries would be far lower.
Static Stretching vs. Dynamic Stretching
When you think of stretching before exercise, you probably think of static stretching, which involves holding stretches while you sit, stand, or lie down. Meanwhile, dynamic stretching involves active movements, such as walking lunges or yoga. In dynamic stretching, you hold poses for no longer than 15 seconds.
While static stretching doesn’t do much to prevent injuries, there could be a link between dynamic stretching and injury prevention. Dynamic stretching is a form of warming up the body before a workout. It gets your blood pumping, sends oxygen to your muscles, and increases your heart rate, all of which can make transitioning into more intense exercise easier and place less stress on the body.
Examples of injury prevention exercises to include in a dynamic stretching routine include:
- Jumping jacks
- Hip circles
- High knees
- Arm circles
- Plank walkouts
Overall Benefits of Stretching
So stretching by itself doesn’t prevent injuries, but does that mean you should give up stretching for good? Not exactly. Both static and dynamic stretching pose several benefits that could aid your athletic performance and help you feel better overall. These include:
- Improving your range of motion, which could make certain movements less painful
- Increasing blood flow throughout your body, delivering nutrients to key areas of the body faster, like the muscles
- Improving your posture by encouraging you to stand straighter
- Aiding cool-down exercises to relax your body after a workout
Stretching still has plenty of benefits, and you shouldn’t remove it from your exercise repertoire. But understanding that stretching won’t prevent injuries could help you take actual injury prevention measures — like working with a physical therapist.
Learn Reliable Injury Prevention Techniques From Exchange Physical Therapy Group
So what is the link between stretching and injury prevention? While stretching isn’t bad for you, there are better ways to prevent injuries. Working with a physical therapist can help you learn key activities and exercises to prevent a hip injury from running or any other type of exercise-induced injury.
At Exchange Physical Therapy Group, our physical therapists provide tailored sports injury prevention therapy. We’ll assess your movement patterns, identify your risks of injury, and guide you through a program to relearn essential movements and strengthen core muscle groups involved in your sport.
Contact us today at 201-721-6130 to schedule an appointment.
