[weckingball]

weckingball on March 22, 2004 at 2:48 am #9025

I have been hearing alot from sprinters that static stretching is bad before a race, whereas the distance people I know stretch as much as possible. When is the line crossed where static stretching before a race is bad?

[CoachKW]

CoachKW on April 9, 2004 at 11:41 pm #26566

I'm not a big fan of lengthy static stretching sessions. But, it helps to work out the kinks in certain areas. For a distance runner, I have my athletes pay attention to their IT bands, hamstrings, and achilles. When we stetch, I have them hold a stretch for at least 35-45 seconds so the Golgi tendon organs can be activated in order to produce a good stetch.

Most people confuse stetching with warming up. Warming up means that you get good blood flow to the performing muscles and engage in activity that results in optimal range of motion. Stetching can aid in that somewhat, but after a period of stetching, you would need to warm up again. So sometimes you see distance runners jog, stretch, and then do some gentle accelerations to get warm again. I have been working on implementing the active warm up that Brent McFarlane has athletes do which combines form drills, running, and selected static stretches. I'd say that static stretching at the end of a meet or training session would be better

[radicalromo]

radicalromo on April 17, 2004 at 7:36 am #26567

as my self a runner for distance i do the same as KW i find long and plenty of streaching is nessisary to get a good run in for the day!

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on April 19, 2004 at 2:16 am #26568

Static stretching seems to be more relevant / important to distance runners because of the higher rate of overuse injuries, smaller ranges of motion used during distance running, lesser need for high power outputs (thus the detriments caused by static stretching may be of less consequence), and the propensity for hamstring and low back tightness among distance runners.

ELITETRACK Founder