There is no one to clarify. Where are we left: stretching exercises before doing sports or physical exercise are good or bad? Because the truth is that you hear about everything out there. Well the answer is that it depends on the type of stretch. According to the experts, if it is a stretch that we do with some external help (which is known as passive stretching), it is better to leave it for later. Here you have all the reasons in detail.
Dangers and harms of stretching
The first thing to keep in mind is that not all stretches are the same, and depending on when you do one or the other, these will play in your favor or against you.
- Functioning of the muscles. Our body works in such a way that when a muscle is stretched it is because another muscle opposite it contracts and, as a consequence, shortens and stretches the muscle in question. But in so-called passive stretching there is no such muscle contracture. The stretching takes place thanks to an external "help" that can be the weight of our body (standing and bending the back, for example), a device (such as letting yourself fall while you are attached to a trellis), or another person pushing us.
- Danger of injury. In this type of stretching, by not controlling the strength, we run the risk of the muscles being overstretched and then we could end up injuring ourselves.
- Added harm. Several studies have not only shown that passive stretching before exercise does not reduce the risk of injury, but also reduces power, strength and performance when doing sports or any physical exercise.
So I don't do anything before playing sports?
Taking all this into account, what you can do is warm up for a few minutes before doing sports. In this way, you lubricate the joints and bring more blood to the muscles, which increases their performance. Remember that vigorous and uncontrolled physical exercise can be the cause of mysterious and unsightly bruises and bruises without bumps.
