Feature Article

“WHY DO I NEED TO STRETCH?”
By Sallie Rediske, MPT

Many people work hard to fit regular exercise into their weekly routine. Everyone knows the importance of regular exercise for weight control, cardiovascular health, and emotional health, but little emphasis is placed on the role of flexibility in overall good health. Even for those who are regular exercisers – running, walking, resistance training – stretching is often the part of our routine that gets “squeezed out” due to time constraints, interest, etc.

Here at Homer Physical Therapy, we feel that loss of flexibility is often the beginning of loss of generalized health and fitness. Too much sitting for instance leads to tight hip and low back muscles which over time makes taking recreational walks less pleasurable and more effortful, resulting in decreased participation in regular exercise.

Here are several reasons that stretching should be part of your daily routine:

• Stretching allows your muscles to work more efficiently. When they are the proper length, they can contract more effectively. If your muscles are tight, the muscle fibers have no space to contract. This results in muscles being unable to generate the maximum amount of contraction possible. When the contraction is diminished, the generated force is lower. For athletes, this can be the difference between generating the force needed to throw farther, run faster, jump higher. Ultimately, it can be the difference between winning or losing a game. For the rest of us, it can be the difference between moving from sitting to standing without having to use our arms to pull ourselves up.

• Stretching helps prevent injuries. When you repeatedly use one set of muscles (for example: a pitcher using their front shoulder muscles to pull the arm forward to release the ball), those muscles tighten. Over time, the opposing muscles can become too long to contract efficiently. This difference in forces around a joint causes the joint to be unstable or positioned in a manner that causes damage to the joint and surrounding soft tissue. Because stretching helps maintain better balance throughout the body, other injuries such as tendonitis, stress fractures, shin splints, muscle tears are also less likely to happen. For the non-athlete, this improvement in balance may translate into improved ability to ascend or descend stairs without pain in the knees or to sleep on one’s back without pain.

• Gentle stretching, proper warm-up and cool-down help decrease delayed onset muscle soreness. This is especially important as you begin a new exercise routine. For most of us, maintaining a consistent routine is the most challenging aspect of exercise. If our routine does not leave us sore and achy our follow-through and consistency may be improved.

• For young, growing teens stretching can play a big role in injury prevention. Often young people have sudden growth spurts in which they put on several inches of height in a very short amount of time. Bones during this growth period often grow faster in length than the muscles do. This leaves the muscles awkwardly pulling on the bones, often creating imbalances in joint alignment. This makes a young person more susceptible to injury and often creates habitual patterns of movement that will be with the person for years – laying the ground work for chronic pain and degeneration.

There are many ways to stretch and each method has its own benefit and purpose. Discussing your fitness goals and health care concerns with a licensed physical therapist is one way to learn about the various methods and what would be the safest and most effective for you and your lifestyle. 

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