Stretching before or after exercise?

Can help stretching to prevent sore muscles?

Sport is healthy: Experts agree on that. For example, regular exercise can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, experts disagree when it comes to stretching before the sport.

Experts are divided on stretching
That sports are healthy, most experts agree. For example, regular exercise can help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure or heart attack. In addition, athletes suffer less frequently from obesity or obesity. However, when it comes to stretching, there is no consensus among professionals. Sports scientists and coaches saw stretching a long time a performance-enhancing all-purpose weapon. It had a reputation to prevent injuries and to protect against muscle soreness. However, as the news agency dpa reported in a recent report on the subject, scientific studies prove neither clearly a protection against injury nor a prevention of muscle soreness.

Stretching can also be "counterproductive"
"There are sports in which stretching before even can be counterproductive," said Ingo Froböse, professor at the Institute for Exercise Therapy and Movement-oriented prevention and rehabilitation of the German Sport University Cologne, opposite the agency. For example, in football or other activities where speed is required. The expert sees even at maximum loads such as weight lifting the stretched muscle rather weakened. Warm up before the sport - no matter what sport - is more important. In most cases it is sufficient to carry out the sport-typical movement slowly and with low intensity. "So if you want to jog, just walk quieter for the first five minutes. That's enough as a protection against injury, "explained Froböse.

Older people and stress sufferers should stretch
Jürgen Freiwald, who heads the Human Movement Science Department at the University of Wuppertal, is a little more relaxed. If recreational athletes feel better after stretching, they should calm down. "With stretching before the sport, I lose two to five percent of my maximum performance. This range of performance is irrelevant to recreational athletes. "He advises senior citizens and stress-prone people in particular to stretch:" It can make them more flexible or maintain their mobility. " Sports scientists favor flexible, dynamic stretching in preparation for sport as part of the warm-up. Freiwald explained that after a hard day's work, static stretching, or stretching, would make sense. The head controls the muscles and the muscles the head. This can be felt during relaxation exercises such as yoga. For some people, however, he sees the stretching critical: "Already over-mobile athletes thus become more susceptible to injury."

No muscle soreness prevention
For weight training, Freiwald advises to perform the movement without weights or with a small load to warm up. "The cartilage, muscle tendons, and tendon muscle transitions tend to be the problems that make them pliable and well-prepared." Things look different in sports that require maximum flexibility. Thus, the sports scientists for gymnastics, hurdles, dolphin swimming or rhythmic gymnastics stretching in the context of warming for appropriate. This also applies to martial arts such as karate and taekwondo and for hurdles or ballet. The opinion that one can prevent muscle soreness by stretching, is finally off the table: "There are no secured studies that demonstrate a preventive effect of stretching against intensity or duration of a muscle cat," said Hans-Joachim Appell Coriolano, Professor at the Institute for Physiology and Anatomy of the German Sport University Cologne. A patent remedy for sore muscles that health experts often cite: just do not go to the pain threshold! But when it does happen, home remedies for muscle soreness can often provide relief.

Stretching exercises of importance for muscle hygiene

However, stretching exercises remain a relevant part of the sport and are important for muscle hygiene: "After exercise, stretching should support muscle relaxation, and during exercise, stretching is meaningful when cramping is announced," Appell says. However, stretching in this case prevents cramping only in the short term. In the long term, stretching in particular improves the mobility of the joints and their surrounding structures. According to Freiwald, recent research no longer focuses on the muscles themselves, but rather on the connective tissue in the musculature and its covering, the so-called fascia. For example, a physician from the Bavarian town of Günzburg had recently reported that he had discovered that fascia is often the cause of back pain. "By uncovering the functions of the fascia that pull over the joints from head to toe, we will be able to enlighten many puzzles in the future that still cling to stretching." It does not matter if you stretch your muscles or fascia: "Stretching is the same as in life: do not go over the pain threshold", Appell warned. And Froböse explained, "Stretching later is more important than before." (Ad)

Image: Yamaoka

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