Study: Stretching Doesn't Prevent Injuries!

[billcoe]

Before I get burned a the stake for Heresy, if you read it closely, it does re-iterate that "Warming up" before is a good thing.Full text follows from AP story:

 

"Sun Mar 28,12:07 PM ET

Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!

 

By IRA DREYFUSS, Associated Press Writer

 

WASHINGTON - Stretching does not live up to its reputation as an injury preventer, a study has found. "We could not find a benefit," said Stephen B. Thacker, director of the epidemiology program office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). Athletes who stretch might feel more limber, but they shouldn't count on stretching to keep them healthy, he said.

 

 

 

Thacker and four CDC colleagues combed research databases for studies that had compared stretching with other ways to prevent training injuries. They combined data from five studies so they could look more closely for any benefits that might emerge as a pattern. Their report is in the March issue of the American College of Sports Medicine journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

 

People who stretched were no more or less likely to suffer injuries such as pulled muscles, which the increased flexibility that results from stretching is supposed to prevent, researchers found. And the injuries found in the study typically happened within the muscle's normal range of motion, so stretching them would not have made a difference, Thacker said.

 

Other research has found that warmups, which increase blood flow through the muscle and make it more ready to respond to exercise, can reduce the risk of injury, Thacker said. Being in good shape also helps. Strength and balance training reduced injuries as well, he said.

 

People such as gymnasts and dancers might be exceptions, because their activities require great flexibility, so stretching might improve their performance, Thacker said.

 

In case future research does find a benefit, Thacker has no problem with athletes continuing to do gentle stretching. That's not the case with stretches that include sudden fast movements, called "ballistic stretches," which have been found in other studies to raise injury risks.

 

The study's findings make sense, said Mike Bracko, director of the Institute for Hockey Research in Calgary, Alberta. "We have done some work with hockey players showing flexibility is not an important variable," he said.

 

A strain typically happens when a muscle has to react suddenly to control an athlete's movement, Bracko said. An example would be a tear in a muscle in the back of a sprinter's leg as it contracts to keep the muscles in the front of the leg from moving the knee too far forward, he said.

 

Two other researchers said, however, that there may still be value in the stretches that coaches require, and athletes do.

 

Lynn Millar, a professor of physical therapy at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich., said her experience in treating people with injuries tells her that those who don't stretch may find they can't move their arms and legs as far as they used to, and this could set them up for injury.

 

"Unfortunately, a lot of us don't have a normal range of motion," Millar said.

 

Stephen Rice, director of the sports medicine center at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, N.J., said he values the experience of trainers and athletes.

 

Flexibility is an element of fitness, and stretching ought to make a person more flexible, Rice said. "I would say the conventional wisdom has a certain amount of wisdom to it," he added. "

 

eom

 

I cant help but think that flexability is a good thing in our sport for injury avoidance.

 

Regards:

 

Bill

[STORER]

If I don't stretch before I do squats, I'll always pull a quad muscle. I'll sometimes pull my calf when bouldering (heel hooks) if I don't stretch properly. I'm a firm believer of stretching. Interesting report.

 

Steve

[jon]

In other news, researchers have found that food prevents hunger.

[Chad_A]

Well, I can say this much. My achilles tendonitis, and finger tendonitis, have both come from lack of warmup, e.g. doing something difficult too soon, be it climbing, or trail running. I do stretch, but, it seems to have no bearing on the injuries that I've obtained.

 

I think I once saw an article interviewing Joe Weider, and he was quoted as saying something along the lines of, "Does a lion stretch before chasing its prey? No!"

 

On the other hand, I think that strecthing certainly doesn't hurt; just don't do it too extensively with muscles and tendons that are cold

[glassgowkiss]

wow! another study. but on another hand even the author is quoting someone saying, that decrease in ROM will lead to an injury. when i see kids from local school and athletes from western streching i'm always thinking might as well not stretch at all.

imo muscle balances are far more important then stretching itself. on the other hand a decrease in ROM will lead to muscular inbalances and eventually to the injury.

that's a part of my workshop tonight at VW in ballard .7:30.

oh, yeah, i forgot, why don't they do a study on non-stretching? about 2 years ago nike's did a study on soccer players. it cost $20.000 (yes, 20 grand!) and the conclussion was - proper warm-up an cool off, muscle balancing excercises and stretching prevent 80% of the injuries. it was published in "Biomechanics" magazine. there was also a $120.000 study by Group Health (no wonder the insurance rates go up) on excess weight leading to spinal problems.

my take is like this- if you can maintain a proper ROM and muscle balances, you don't have to do squat. on the other hand if you are even semi-seroius about excercising and you are not in the 1% genetically gifted category you'll need to do some work. and sooner you recognize it and start less problems you'll have to deal with later on in life. good luck and hope to see some of you tonight- r

Edited March 29, 2004 by glassgowkiss

[Dru]

"I like stretching. Stretching helps my climbing." - Ron Kauk

 

"Yeah, stretching the truth!" - Mark Chapman

[catbirdseat]

I get the impression that people confuse stretching with warming up. Warming up prevents injuries, stretching before a workout does not. A warm for a runner might be jogging a half mile at an easy pace, for a climber, some easy boulder problems before a climb. In my own opinion, stretching after a work out is more important that stretching before.

[glassgowkiss]

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/288489/page/1/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

i don't think there is any confusion. you are stating the obvious

[Figger_Eight]

If I remember right, there was a similar study done at the University of Texas in the early 90's. They interviewed injured athletes in the training room and asked them one question: did you stretch prior to your activity? Since all of them said yes, the study found zero correlation between stretching and injury prevention.

[catbirdseat]

People take it for granted that the studies are well run, but not all of them are. The conclusions can be totally worthless if the study design isn't sound. If you really wanted to get reliable results you would have to have one group employ a prescribed set of stretches so each person did the same with a test group that did not stretch. Any warm up would have to be identical in each group.

[Bronco]

i don't think there is any confusion. you are stating the obvious

 

Have you not read his other posts? He takes pride in stating and restating the obvious.

[lummox]

the parameters of the study are not outlined. fukin slow news day headline bullshit?

[colt45]

Here is the abstract from the article. Note that the authors did not directly "do" anything, they just compiled results from studies that met their inclusion criteria. The criteria is pretty vague: they analyzed studies having "interventions that include stretching."

 

Calculating an odds ratio is somewhat fishy because there is definitely going to be a lot of variability in both treatment and control groups among all the studies. For example some studies with experimental stretching routines that lead to more harm may cancel out other studies with standard stretching routines that significantly reduce injury.

 

Also, the definition of "injury" may vary a lot from one study to the next. Injury=torn tendon? Joint pain? Broken ankle?

 

And of course, the specific activity studied to determine presence/absence of injury was probably different between studies. Heavy weight lifting? Walking around the block? Channel surfing??

 

Be sure to read their conclusion statement at the end.

---------------------------

ABSTRACT

THACKER, S. B., J. GILCHRIST, D. F. STROUP, and C. D. KIMSEY, JR. The Impact of Stretching on Sports Injury Risk: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 371-378, 2004.

 

Purpose: We conducted a systematic review to assess the evidence for the effectiveness of stretching as a tool to prevent injuries in sports and to make recommendations for research and prevention.

 

Methods: Without language limitations, we searched electronic data bases, including MEDLINE (1966-2002), Current Contents (1997-2002), Biomedical Collection (1993-1999), the Cochrane Library, and SPORTDiscus, and then identified citations from papers retrieved and contacted experts in the field. Meta-analysis was limited to randomized trials or cohort studies for interventions that included stretching. Studies were excluded that lacked controls, in which stretching could not be assessed independently, or where studies did not include subjects in sporting or fitness activities. All articles were screened initially by one author. Six of 361 identified articles compared stretching with other methods to prevent injury. Data were abstracted by one author and then reviewed independently by three others. Data quality was assessed independently by three authors using a previously standardized instrument, and reviewers met to reconcile substantive differences in interpretation. We calculated weighted pooled odds ratios based on an intention-to-treat analysis as well as subgroup analyses by quality score and study design.

 

Results: Stretching was not significantly associated with a reduction in total injuries (OR = 0.93, CI 0.78-1.11) and similar findings were seen in the subgroup analyses.

 

Conclusion: There is not sufficient evidence to endorse or discontinue routine stretching before or after exercise to prevent injury among competitive or recreational athletes. Further research, especially well-conducted randomized controlled trials, is urgently needed to determine the proper role of stretching in sports.

------------------------------------

[chucK]

Study design issues aside,

the study does not say that "Stretching Doesn't Prevent Injuries!" What it says is "These data don't present conclusive evidence that Stretching Does Prevent Injuries".

[billcoe]

Yes, a close read backs up what CBS says. They defined stretching and warms ups as different things.

 

Slow news day for sure.

[lummox]

Conclusion: There is not sufficient evidence to endorse or discontinue routine stretching before or after exercise to prevent injury among competitive or recreational athletes. Further research, especially well-conducted randomized controlled trials, is urgently needed to determine the proper role of stretching in sports.

fukin lameass shizzle. the crap that 'scientists' are able to publish makes me appreciate high school dropouts even more.

[markinore]

First, note that this is a "meta-analysis," in other words, a study of other studies. The investigators did not do the primary research. That does not completely invalidate their conclusions, but does make them subject to greater circumspection. Second, only 6 studies were judged to meet the criteria of the meta-analysis. That is a far smaller number than used in many meta-analyses, such as those that try to examine methods of preventing or treating heart attacks. Third, the populations used in the individual studies may not be relevant to us who climb. Stretching may reduce injuries for some types of athletic activities and not others. These are my concerns as a scientist.

 

As a climber and as one who HATES to stretch--how can you stop to stretch when you get to the crag and the rock is just waiting for you?--I am comforted by this study.

 

Finally, however, I must acknowledge that those who continue climbing into middle age seem to be those who spend the time and effort to stretch. Rickey Henderson, who continued to play major league baseball until he was what, 60?, attributed his longevity to an extensive stretching regimen every night before bed.

[colt45]

If I remember right, there was a similar study done at the University of Texas in the early 90's. They interviewed injured athletes in the training room and asked them one question: did you stretch prior to your activity? Since all of them said yes, the study found zero correlation between stretching and injury prevention.

 

I think I once saw an article interviewing Joe Weider, and he was quoted as saying something along the lines of, "Does a lion stretch before chasing its prey? No!"

 

I'm tempted to conduct my own study that results in a somewhat counter-intuitive result. How's this one sound (obviously I am making up the numbers but I bet that the relationship exists).

 

INTRODUCTION

For many years, it has been widely held that the use of a rope in rock climbing prevents injuries and death. However the existence of any such relationship has never been rigorously examined.

 

STUDY DESIGN

An examiner-blinded, case-control study. An exhaustive search of the rock climbing literature was performed. Inclusion criteria was injuries and deaths reported on technical rock climbs in Yosemite Valley, CA, between 1997-2002, that were rated between 5.7 and 5.9 on a standard difficulty scale. Controls were obtained by systematically observing climbers on the popular 5.8 route "Nutcracker". A team of investigators recorded whether each climber used a rope. A panel of blinded physicians then examined each climber after the route to confirm post-route viability and to determine whether any newly sustained injuries were present.

 

RESULTS

In the period 1997-2002, 112 injuries were reported on routes satisfying the inclusion criteria. 111 (99.1%) of the climbers were using a rope.

 

Among controls, 98 climbers were observed on Nutcracker over a 5-day period. 81 (82.7%) of these climbers used a rope. No injuries or deaths were observed during the course of the control investigation.

 

CONCLUSION

The use of a rope while rock climbing was significantly associated with an increased incidence of severe injury and death (OR=1.20, CI=1.12-1.35). This relationship also held when stratified by subgroup analysis (including crack vs face routes and routes <5 vs routes >=5 pitches in length). Given these results, additional study is warranted to determine whether a climbing rope actually provides any safety benefit.

 

=====

 

Article in the popular media:

 

Scientific study reveals that rock climbing is significantly safer when done without a rope.

 

excerpt:

 

"This merely confirms what we knew all along" said the lead investigator. "You see, use of a rope is likely to distract the climber and lead to error. Moreover, the slower rate of a roped climber results in increased exposure to objective hazards and hypothermia. And several reported injuries involved the rope itself leading to injury or death after disloding loose rock."

 

"We hope that these results will end the dangerous practice of using a rope for supposed 'safety' while rock climbing," he continued. "After all, does a monkey tie into a rope before climbing a tree? No!"