To Stretch Or Not To Stretch – There’s Really No Question

Stretching… it’s amazing that something so basic can be so controversial, but alas there are some extremely divergent ideas on the “right” way to stretch and even whether or not you should do it at all.

We’ll explain in a little more depth below, but check out this video for GMB‘s official stance on the great stretching debate:

So, um, yeah. We think stretching is a good thing.

It’s not just that simple though. There are a lot of factors involved in deciding what does or doesn’t belong in a training program. Let’s look at the cases both for and against stretching, followed by a few words about how we use stretching in GMB and what roles it really fills for us.

Reasons Not To Stretch

When you read an article or hear someone talking about why you shouldn’t stretch, they’re usually going to be coming from one of three main arguments:

1. Stretching is dangerous
2. Stretching is unrealistic
3. Stretching doesn’t exist

Let’s break these down.

Stretching is Dangerous

This is absolutely true. Other things that are dangerous: eating (poison), breathing (car exhaust), and sleeping (in the bath tub).

Yes, that’s right. Anything can be dangerous if you do it wrong, and stretching is certainly no exception. Sure, I’m guilty of cherry picking extreme examples above to make my point (logical fallacies can be fun sometimes), but anyone who claims outright that all stretching is dangerous is at least as guilty.

You see, there are in fact dozens of studies showing that, under certain circumstances, certain kinds of stretches can increase the chances of certain types of injury in certain activities.

For example, excessive static stretching of the prime antagonist muscles immediately prior dynamic movement can result in increased likelihood of muscle strain due to over-relaxation and temporary lengthening of the muscle fibers. (In English, that means that stretching the hell out of a muscle will ‘loosen’ the muscle, and if you do this before an activity that requires that muscle to contract quickly, it might not be prepared to respond, and you could hurt yourself.)

The are also certain stretches that are contraindicated (e.g., you shouldn’t do them) for people who have various injuries.

For example, if you’ve had a lower back injury, some stretches for the hamstrings and hip flexors could strain that area and cause pain or exacerbate your injury. Of course, if you’ve been injured, you should be working with a doctor or physical therapist to determine which exercises you’re capable of doing.

The point is that, yes, stretching can be dangerous, if you do it wrong! Just like anything else.

Lucky for you, GMB isn’t going to tell you to stretch wrong.

Stretching Is Unrealistic

Pop Quiz: A mugger jumps out of a dark alley and demands you hand over your wallet and your keys. Do you:

• A) Run like hell,
• B) Comply with his demands, or
• C) Ask him to wait five minutes while you stretch and warm up so you can adequately defend yourself?

OK, in all honesty, you may not be too enamored of any of the choices above, but you have to admit that, of the three, choice C sounds pretty ridiculous.

This is the logic of certain “tactical” schools of thought on the subject of warming up.

And it’s good logic too, but it depends on the assumption of a certain goal in training: to be tactically ready at a moment’s notice for life or death performance. This is a necessity for soldiers, police, firefighters, and probably the guys on Ninja Warrior too, but for most of us, it’s a distraction.

There are two broad classes of training at play in this example: training to increase your capabilities and training to increase your ability to make use of your capabilities without notice.

In the latter case, warming up may be counterproductive, but if you’re just trying to get stronger, practice some fun movement, and get better at using your body for everyday stuff, you definitely want to be warming up. A proper warm-up including some stretching does a lot to prepare your nervous system, your cardiovascular system, and your muscles themselves to be pushed towards their limits, and pushing your limits is how you expand them.

If you’re not a first responder, there’s very little utility in training tactical response. Slow down. Warm up. Give your body the optimal environment in which to get better at the things that matter.

Stretching Doesn’t Exist

This, too, is true, in a sort of weird semantic kind of hair-splitting way.

As the argument goes, muscles don’t actually stretch; a fully relaxed muscle is up to 50% longer than a muscle in it’s typical semi-contracted state. Therefore, “stretching” a muscle doesn’t so much elongate its fibers as it simply trains them to hold less unnecessary tonus.

People who make this argument will also tend to plead a case for prioritizing the development of “mobility” instead of “flexibility.” And again, we think this is just a semantic issue.

The fact is, you can call it what you like. We “stretch” in order to increase our functional range of motion about various joints in various positions. Yes, we could probably come up with much more accurate and technical-sounding ways to describe that, but we’d much rather spend our time designing super-effective programs, testing them with real people, and teaching them to our clients.

Stretching may not be the best possible word to describe our method for increasing flexibility/mobility, but it’s something that people understand, and it works.

Why GMB Programs Include Stretching

There are really lots of reasons, and we discuss several of them in detail in our training manuals (side note here to anyone who is using any or our programs: “read the manual!”). Proper stretching can improve mobility around major joints such as the shoulders and hips, reduce the intensity of muscle soreness after exercise, and speed recovery after training.

Without going into too great detail, we teach only stretching methods that we feel are safe and useful within the context of our programs:

• We don’t advocate high-risk stretches that can cause injury if done improperly.
• We never recommend intense static stretching prior to dynamic movement.
• We teach the safest and “cleanest” techniques available.
• We choose stretches that relate directly to the exercises and skills in a given program.
• We provide complete guidance on how and when to apply various stretching techniques.

We do all of that so you don’t have to worry about what some dude on a forum somewhere said about stretching. We’ve thought long and hard about the stretches in our programs and how they work with those programs to achieve the desired results in a safe and reliable manner. We’ve considered all the dangers and weighed the pros and cons, leaving just one question you need to ask:

Is this a GMB program?

If the answer is “yes,” then you can proceed confidently, knowing that we’ve got your back, and that all your questions and concerns have been seen to in advance.

Questions?

We get a lot of questions about stretching, and we wrote this article to answer the most common ones, but there’s bound to be others. Feel free to ask away. Leave a comment below, and we’ll post our responses so everyone can benefit.

Related Stretching Articles:

• Everything You Need to Know About Developing Your Flexibility and Strength
• No, Stretching is NOT BS

Andy Fossett

GMB Executive Director - Andy enjoys reading books, drinking beer, and practicing martial arts and parkour. He lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and thinks you look lovely today.

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