{"id":5830,"date":"2010-03-11T13:03:35","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T18:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5830"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:45:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:45:14","slug":"to-stretch-or-not-to-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5830","title":{"rendered":"To Stretch or Not To Stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I\u2019ve been stretching before I run for as long as I can remember. I started stretching before runs because my uncle always did and since he was the \u201cadult\u201d runner I knew I did it too. Now I do it because it feels good, and if I don\u2019t stretch before I run I feel like something\u2019s missing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It\u2019s always made sense to me that stretching muscles before using them will prepare them and help avoid injury. I mean every exercise magazine, website, and blog writes about stretching. And it seems like someone is always tooting a new great stretching technique.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A few months ago I read a piece in Runner\u2019s World about stretching that surprised me.\u00a0 According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.runnersworld.com\/article\/0,7120,s6-241-287--7001-0,00.html\">article published in 2004<\/a> stretching does increase flexibility, but this increased flexibility doesn&#8217;t prevent injuries. I noted this and kept on stretching knowing it may not protect me from injury, but it still felt good and was part of my pre run routine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Today while reading Runner\u2019s World online I came across information which may actually make me decide to change my ways. In Amby Burfoot\u2019s blog \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/peakperformance.runnersworld.com\/\">Peak Performance<\/a>,\u201d she writes about a new study published in the <em>Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research <\/em><em>that found stretching actually lowered performance in endurance runners. The study \u201cl<\/em>ooked at 10 highly fit male runners who were averaging at least 20 miles a week in their training. Before a treadmill test run, they either sat quietly for 16 minutes or did 16 minutes of static stretching exercises. They then ran for 60 minutes on the treadmill\u2013the first 30 minutes at a relaxed pace, and the last 30 minutes as fast as they could.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">With stretching, they covered an average of 5.8 km in the last 30 minutes. Without stretching, they ran 6.0 km, an increase of 200 meters or about 3.4 percent. Eight of the 10 runners performed better without stretching; one performed better with stretching; and one performed essentially the same under both conditions. On average, the stretchers hit a max heart rate 5 beats per minute higher than the non-stretchers in the final 30 minutes. In other words, the stretchers were working harder but covering less distance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is amazing. Yes, other studies may show different results in the future. But for now, I think I\u2019m going to try to <strong>not <\/strong>stretch before my next long run (20 miles) and see what happens.\u00a0 Now here\u2019s the real question \u2013 what effect does stretching have on blood sugar?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":53098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"tags":[575,661],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Should I Stretch Before I Run<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most People preform static stretching exercises before they run and so do I. I always thought stretching reduces injury. new research has found that static stretching doesn&#039;t prevent injury and may lower performance in endurance runners\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5830\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Aviad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5830\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5830\",\"name\":\"Should I Stretch Before I Run\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5830#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5830#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ASL-Social-Big-Square-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-11T18:03:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-27T20:45:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9e0f6c9e8ec6bf77b78cd95c9bd446b6\"},\"description\":\"Most People preform static stretching exercises before they run and so do I. 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