More habit than science
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-23 09:11
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Experts throw doubt on the benefits of stretching before exercise. |
Some drivers warm up their engines on a cold morning despite the advent of automatic chokes that reduce to zero the chances of a cold motor vehicle stalling in traffic.
Old habits die hard - and it's the same with the routines people have before they exercise. Most people believe it is important to stretch before exercise despite science providing no conclusive evidence to support it. But not everyone acts on that belief - most, quixotically, out of simple laziness.
A recent study, this one by researchers at Sydney University's George Institute for International Health, suggests that if there is any benefit from callisthenics before vigorous exercise it is not all that great.
The most that can be said, according to chief researcher Rob Herbert, is that if you think a warm-up is an essential precursor to working up a sweat "probably there's little to be lost from not doing it".
Herbert and his team looked at the literature: There were papers extolling the virtues of stretching and papers rubbishing the concept.
They conducted their own research, having one group of participants stretching for seven minutes before exercise over a period of three months and another group of fitness enthusiasts not bothering to do anything between getting their sports kit on and getting started.
The conclusion was that there is a "very small reduction in the risk of some injuries and a small reduction in the risk of bothersome soreness". Stretching cut the risk of muscle, ligament and tendon damage by the equivalent of preventing one injury about every five years.
