What does my physio think about stretching?

Do you ever wonder what your physio thinks about your favourite forms of exercise or whether your health or lifestyle choices are a good idea? In the second of a series of blog posts entitled “What Does My Physio Think…?” we’ve asked our physios what they think about stretching.

Is stretching beneficial? Should I stretch before and/or after exercise? Dynamic or static stretches? Do you stretch? How and when?

Emily, our soft tissue therapist, triathlon coach, athlete personal trainer, says: 

“In the sports world especially for team sports and cardiovascular based sports such as running, the current (it keeps changing) recommendation is dynamic stretches before exercise and static after.

As a coach and athlete, I’ve found that it depends on your sports and how you feel on the day. If you feel particularly tight at the start line, dynamic stretching may cause you to pull a muscle, so some gentle static stretches after mobilising to increase your range of movement could show good results. In general, warm up gently first before stretching.  Muscles are like Plasticine, malleable when warm, not so much when cold!”

Stuart, our specialist knee and foot & ankle physio says:

“Stretching is beneficial for maintaining or achieving normal functional ranges of motion and reducing post exercise stiffness / tightness. I generally stretch before exercise with dynamic movements then post exercise, I undertake static stretching, depending on my objectives. So pre-exercise I warm up and perform a range of dynamic stretches for 10 minutes before running. Afterwards I will spend 5-10 mins targeting tight muscle groups and stretching for 20-30 secs per time.”

Physio Paul, who specialises in sports injuries, comments

“Stretching is beneficial - pre-exercise a static stretch tends to be a good diagnostic to understand what areas you might need to warm up before starting sport - warm up should be a progressive process to commencing sport. Think of it as if you’re taking your car up through its gears - you want to be in top gear as you start, but you're better off going through each level to get there. Static stretching post-exercise is more beneficial than pre-exercise and should be the end of an active warm-down process (like the warm up in reverse).”