Post
by KPj » Fri May 22, 2009 7:15 am
yeah - and, some studies done, most using vertical jump as the indicator, have shown zero decrease in power. So, you have zero decrease, or you have an insiginifcant decrease. On top of that, i think the 'effects' of stretching last around 10 minutes, and this was long duration (minutes). So, if i'm deadlifting, and I stretch the hell out of my hamstrings, then warm up, them do my warm up sets, will it matter? And most people only hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds, not minutes at a time. That was an extreme example that I gave but I think it shows how insignificant the whole stretching thing is.
I just believe that you should stretch what's tight, that's all. When you just pretend for a minute that stretching causes the muscle to significantly decrease performance, then that can actually be VERY beneficial. Tight and short quads/hip flexors inhibit the glutes. What if I want to train my glutes? Performance is already screwed because of the hip flexors, so, I stretch them, weaken them, and now the glutes have no choice but to pitch in... for the same reason it's not uncommon to see the recommendation to static stretch the hip flexors before doing for a vertical jump test. If you have short upper traps, you're not going to have the ROM to train the lower traps. What can you do? Stretch the upper traps before trying to hit the lower traps...
All in all though, it's insignificant. If a muscle is short, it should be stretched... In my opinion. I also don't think there's much if any benefit in stretching post workout, contrary to popular belief. Won't do any harm, but it won't do much good, either.
KPj