I have some bad news. Stretching before exercise, it does not prevent injury. There
is loads and loads of research that shows that deep stretching, static stretching,
before a run, before a game, before a workout routine, it actually reduces your power,
reduces your speed, and can create temporary joint laxity for about one to three hours.
So it's possible that deep stretching might actually make you more susceptible,
not less susceptible to injuries. OK, so what should we do? Should
we stop stretching altogether? No no, that's not the solution.
Hey, my name is Lucas. I teach something called the Science of Stretching. I'm a yoga teacher,
I focus on flexibility training, and in this short video my objective is to share with you the truth
and the myth about flexibility training. When and how to use it appropriately.
Let's start off by looking at some of that negative research because it's important to
understand how this works. A 2014 study in the Journal of Strength Conditioning and Research,
what they did is they looked at people running at a one-mile race pace, so really fast runners,
and one group was stretching, static stretching before their runs, and one group was not.
They found statistically significant slower the group that was stretching.
OK, so why? That doesn't make any sense, right? Well think about it. When you're running your
body takes kinetic energy and potential energy and it stores it in the elastic tissues of your
muscles and your tendons. So at the bottom of your stride you bounce like a pogo stick and
you transfer that energy, and this is how we run. When you do deep stretching it reduces temporarily
the elasticity of those muscles and tendons, so there's less bounce in your stride. Imagine that
same pogo stick but at the bottom of the bounce the spring is worn out and so you have to force
with your legs. That's what happens. It takes more muscular energy, you're slower, you're basically
slower as a runner. In another study looking at joint laxity they took a group of soccer players
and one group was doing static stretching before their practice, before their games,
and the other group was not. What they found is looking at their knees there was statistically
significantly more joint laxity in the group that was stretching. What does that mean? Well,
that deep stretching, again, destabilized their knees, potentially making them more susceptible to
things like an ACL rupture or other knee injuries. OK, so if stretching before a game, stretching
before a run, stretching before exercise, is not good, why is everybody doing it? Why are amateurs
doing it? Why are runners doing it? Why are professional athletes? Why are Olympic athletes,
why do you see them doing these routines? Well if you pay close attention, what you'll notice is
that the vast majority of those athletes they're not doing long hold, two-minute, passive flops
over their legs. They're not passively stretching, they're actively and dynamically stretching before
games. And what that means is they'll flex and extend their joints, they'll contract
and relax their muscles, and they'll go through a range of motion to connect their mind and their
muscles. This is a really great way to warm up. It can create that nervous system connection, it can
increase circulation, and just like if you took a practice swing before you hit a ball, probably
that'll increase your performance. Just like if you took a practice pitch or a practice kick,
it will probably increase your performance. This is why athletes do it. It's probably a great idea.
Now does that prevent injuries? Also probably not, but it probably does increase performance. OK,
so we know deep stretching before exercise is not a great idea. We know that most athletes
are doing warm-up stretches, that might be a good idea but it doesn't prevent injuries. And
here's the kicker, here's why you clicked on this video originally, probably you have some areas of
your body that nevertheless, despite everything I've shared with you, are totally imbalanced.
Maybe your shoulders are hunched over and you're unable to interlace your hands behind your back.
Maybe you cannot squat down past 90 degrees to get your bum to your heels. Maybe when you hinge
forward your back curls and you get lower back pain. If you have lost basic range of motion,
if you're moving in a way that's sub-optimal, that makes you very prone to injuries. So what do you
do? Here's what you do. You stretch after, not before. You stretch after exercise, not before,
and ideally you do it right before bed. Using Science of Stretching principles, long hold,
passive poses, you can systematically open up your hips, your hamstrings, your shoulders, your spine,
really any area of your body. We do it right before bed, so you go to bed loose and limber.
Remember we have a one to three hour period where you'll have less power, less strength,
and joint laxity. Go to bed loose and limber and then you wake up in a ready state for practice.
Over time you can correct your posture, over time you can increase your range of motion, and
increased range of motion, better biomechanics, better posture, that is how you reduce injuries
long-term. Hope you found this video helpful. Hopefully it's cleared up some of the confusion
around flexibility training. If you'd like more science of yoga information,
please subscribe down below. If you have questions,
post them down below. And you can always find my teaching schedule at yogabody.com.