Stretching and recovery/injury risk reduction

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hello, I do not stretch.
I used to static stretch all the time and had hip pain and knee pain and don’t know why…maybe too much IT band stretching. Now I do not stretch and have 0 pain or issues in the gym. I do my warm up/working sets and then go right home. No foam rolling or anything.

There are some people at my gym who are very adamant that I stretch for injury reduction/recovery purposes and I have heard through barbell medicine that stretching, static or dynamic, does not improve recovery or reduce injury. I have been looking on google scholar for a while to find information to support this theory but have failed.

Are there a few current studies/ meta-analysis you could link me to in order to have concrete facts to back up this statement? I just wouldn’t feel right standing by not stretching if I don’t know why I am doing it. Thank you.

2

I hear you, but I’m not sure you need to justify what you do to everyone that doesn’t do it.

3

https://www.barbellmedicine.com/mobility-explained/

But I agree with Dave, that you don’t need to justify anything to these people at your gym, no matter how “adamant” they are about your training.

4

Thanks for the link…I agree too I just wanted a better understanding of why i am not stretching from a scientific standpoint.

5

The two articles I tend to reference most are:

​​​​​​The effectiveness of exercise interventions to prevent sports injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials - PubMed

​​​​​​Increasing Muscle Extensibility: A Matter of Increasing Length or Modifying Sensation? | Physical Therapy | Oxford Academic

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