We’ve been hearing it ever since we can remember… “Don’t forget to stretch” or “You hurt your hamstring? Stretch it”. The phrases go on and on about how much we need to stretch. As you’ve read in my past blogs it could seem that I am anti-stretching, which I’m not. I believe that there is a certain time and place for stretching that can be important in certain situations, but then there are times where I can be harmful which is what I’m going to go over in this blog.

Muscles can shorten (contraction), relax, and lengthen which is all part of elasticity component which protects the muscles from becoming injured. There are layers that make up the muscle, the deepest level of the muscle that allows the muscle fibers to lengthen and shorten are called myofilaments. Then the muscle shortens, the myofilaments overlap each other. While stretching, there is a decrease in the amount of overlapping within the myofilaments that allows the muscle to lengthen.

When NOT to stretch:

1. When Your Muscles Are Cold

Imagine that your muscles are like a big bundle of rubber bands. Now imagine them being cold and brittle, you then try to pull the bands… the bands will probably snap. Just like your muscles, they don’t want to be stretched when they are cold and stiff. Your muscles will become even more tight from the protective mechanisms within them, then when you are at more risk of an injury. Instead, before any physical activity do a dynamic warm up that will increase heart rate which allows increasing of blood flow to muscles which increases mobility, as well as stimulates and prepares the nervous system for movement.
Example of dynamic warm up: Take about 10 minutes.
Jog down and back, High Knees, Butt Kicks, Skips, Side Shuffles, Straight leg kicks, Walking lunge, Lateral Lunge, Inch Worms, etc.

3. Before a Big Lift

Similar to power-oriented exercises, in a study by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, it was found that static stretching before lifting weights may cause you to feel weaker than expected. In the study, barbell back squats were performed after static stretching and sound that the participants could squat 8.3 percent less weight than if they did a dynamic warm up instead. They also reported to feel less stable and unbalanced (this comes back to the nervous system not being stimulated).

4. If You Are Already Hypermobile

If you are known to be “double jointed” or already extremely flexible, you might not necessarily need to be stretching more. There is such a thing as being “too flexible” and “too mobile”. This puts you at a large risk of injury in performance. It would put you at a disadvantage and could result in hyperextensions at the joints and even affect the way you absorb force. If this is you, make sure to move on stability exercises which will help strengthen around the joint, and stick with a different myofascial modality such as foam rolling.

5. When You Pull A Muscle

I can’t stress this one enough. If you stretch a muscle too far, you created microtears within the muscle fibers. If you do not properly take care of this injury, you would make even worse! The first thing that people think when they injure themselves and feel a pull, is to stretch it. DO NOT STRETCH IT! You already overstretched the muscle, why would you want to keep stretching it even further when your muscles are trying to protect the area and repair it?! Think of this situation like fabric. The more you full on this fabric from opposite directions you start to see the fabric fibers start to separate from one another until it’s too late and completely tears in half. If you watch to stitch it back together, you can’t keep tugging on what caused the problem. What to do instead is to give it some time to have the fibers come back together and stitch back together. Elevate, compress, and ice it. Give it some time before you foam roll the area, as well.