**DISCLAIMER – I do stretch and happen to enjoy yoga**

There have been a number of compelling studies and write-ups on the benefits of stretching, or the lack thereof in the past few years. In studying the issue, I have had two trains of thought:

1) What is the effect of stretching upon the body?

2) Do we think less or more highly than we ought to of the practice of stretching?

First, it’s important to recall that every movement of the body promotes both flexion and extension of different muscle groups. Take your quadriceps for instance; as you extend your lower leg you are activating and contracting them. In order for one muscle group to contract, however, you must have an opposite muscle group extend, or elongate. In this instance, that muscle group would be your hamstrings. They are undergoing a stretching motion every time the quads contract and vice versa. Therefore, every motion you undertake promotes stretching. So then “stretching” as we commonly think of it must be more of a deliberate movement into the end of our range of motion.

There are three strains of thought concerning stretching when working out: Stretching before working out, stretching after working out, and not stretching. There is a fourth general kind of stretching and it’s what most of us do when we wake up in the morning. Believe it or not, but because we desire to have a name for everything, this type of stretching (especially done by your household cat when he wakes up) is called pandiculation and I would say that fundamentally it is the best sort of stretch not for any other reason than you FEEL like doing it. Anecdotally, it awakens and invigorates  the muscles but, perhaps more importantly, it realigns and moves the fascia around the muscles helping it to flow along with the usual contractions and extensions of your muscles. In essence, it prepares you for your day’s work.

Still, we don’t need to stretch in order to bolt from our beds in times of panic or need (like the other morning when I forgot to set my alarm clock and almost missed a deadline). We don’t even need to stretch to run a race and it’s not actually proven that doing so improves performance or reduces injury. When was the last time your neighbor’s crazy dog or cat was injured for lack of stretching when charging at you when walking by their fence?

I write all of this to explain the general reasoning behind my two points above. Stretching, in the most basic sense, brings circulation and movement into dormant tissues, but in simply being active you are actually stretching every moving muscle and it’s surrounding fascia. Also, unlike animals that have no particular stretching routine and function just fine, it is easy for us to overthink the benefits of stretching and look at is as more of a competition with ourselves (I find it amusing that we now have a national yoga championship). To wit, I  have actually worked on people who have injured themselves stretching.

So where does that leave us? Well, I think in a good place. Some people love to stretch and find it to be meditative and purposeful. Continue in that practice. Some athletes find stretching to be  a waste of time and effort that actually decreases their explosive performance. Don’t stretch. Most importantly of all? KEEP MOVING! You were never meant to be a swamp of inactivity and your movement is truly what will keep your body healthy!

 today and I will happily stretch you out (or not) depending on your preferences using a variety of techniques from PNF to passive joint!