Stretching pre / post exercise - waste of time of essential?

[The_wind_of_my_soul]

Oh man, I’ve been weight-lifting for eleven years, and I still haven’t made up my mind on this. The one thing I will say is that I think being a fit person involves good strength, good power, good cardiovascular fitness, good balance, and good flexibility. So even if stretching won’t make me stronger or less prone to injury, I do think that working on it regularly improves my overall functional fitness.

[begbert2]

I use an exercise bike, and feel that stretching in advance (or after) would be silly. I also don’t ramp up or ramp down - I run it at a constant speed the whole time (around fifty minutes, usually), none to arduous but enough to break a sweat.

I didn’t answer the poll itself because I figured people wouldn’t consider my biking to be strenuous enough to qualify as exercise.

[Clothahump]

General warmup
Stretch to get ready for exercixe
Exercise
Stretch to get max benefit and increase flexibility
Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Stretching pre-exercise helps prevent injuries. Stretching post-exercise helps increase flexibility and decrease cramps.

[CookingWithGas]

@Wesley_Clark

I’ve noticed if I don’t stretch my hamstrings and quads after cardio that they will hurt the next day.

I have heard this claim and have never seen evidence of this or an explanation of the claimed underlying biological mechanism. Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is the result of microtears in muscle from strenuous exercise. Stretching cannot repair or otherwise mitigate that, so there seems to be no logic that says stretching should reduce post-exercise soreness. Here is one meta-study that found no significant correlation between stretching and DOMS.

One thing that seems uncontroversial is that stretching increases flexibility.

[Helena330]

@Sigene

For me, its a waste of time. I get harped at by my gym staff to stretch, but they have never produced peer reviewed evidence that it does any good for the activities I do. Its the equivalent of people doing things ‘for luck’ or because “I was taught this, and never questioned it.”

I agree its important for people who need flexibility. …for me, its meaningless and has never produced a tangible result that I could notice much less measure.

This is my experience, as well. I warm up slowly and cool down slowly, and both serve me very well. I don’t notice any difference stretching so I’d rather just get going (slowly).

Obviously, stretching is an extremely individual thing.

[Graymalkin]

Nothing wrong with stretching I suppose–you get to do some things with the old bod that you’d otherwise never do. Sort of fun as a group activity. I’m 7"0, and I get out every morning and jog for three miles with my dog; doesn’t even occur to me to stretch. 'Course I don’t go too fast.