Training

Pre-run stretching doesn’t affect injury rate

In the “I didn’t know they did research” department, U.S.A. Track and Field just released the results of a study on pre-run stretching. They recruited 1,400 runners through their website for a randomized, prospective study in which half the volunteers stretched before running and the other half didn’t. Over the next three months, 16% of the runners got injured, with no difference whatsoever between the stretching and non-stretching groups.

You can’t read too much into a volunteer, self-reported study like this, but if you drill a little further into the data, there are some interesting wrinkles. Age, sex, weekly mileage, flexibility and level of competition all had no effect on injury rates. High BMI and previous history of injury, on the other hand, both led to a higher probability of injury.

Most interestingly, people who normally stretch before runs but were assigned to the non-stretching group actually doubled their risk of injury. There’s not really enough detail in the study to understand why this happened, but it underscores an important message that applies not only stretching, but to other hot topics like running shoes: If you’re running happily without injury problems, don’t change what you’re doing!