FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
USATF Announces Results of Pre-run Stretch Study
To stretch or not to stretch? That's a question millions of runners ask
themselves daily, but results from a USA Track & Field-sponsored clinical
trial involving close to 3,000 runners confirm there is no difference in
the risk of injury for those who stretched before running and those who did
not.
The study randomly assigned people to perform a specified pre-run
stretching routine or to perform no pre-run stretching for a period of 3
months. Those people who completed the study and complied with their group
had the same risk of injury (16%) regardless of which group they were in.
Overall, stretching did not provide protection against injury.
The study manager, Alan Roth, Ph.D., said, "For the study's specified
pre-run stretching routine that millions of runners commonly use, the study
puts to rest claims for and against it, but the devil is in the details.
Using scientific method, we have arrived at some overall conclusions and
learned some important details. If you've been doing pre-run stretching, it
is best to keep doing it. A surprise finding was that many variables that
we thought would strongly influence injury rates, didn't. For example,
injury rates among women and men were similar while mileage, flexibility or
level of competition also did not appear relevant. In general, younger
runners fared no better than the older runners."
The study's Principal Investigator, Dr. Daniel Pereles, a Maryland-based
orthopedist, said that participants provided information on many relevant
variables when they enrolled in the study, permitting a thorough analysis
of potential risk factors for injury. Participants provided information on
such things as age, gender, usual stretching regimen, miles run per week,
years running, warm-up activities, measurements of flexibility, concurrent
diseases and medications, level of competition and so on.
Two of the variables recorded were found to strongly influence injury
rates; people with a higher body-mass-index were more likely to be injured
as were people with a recent or chronic injury prior to participating in
the study. Participation was limited to runners who had no injuries for the
six weeks prior to the study.
One additional risk factor was identified for people who informed us they
normally stretch before they run. If they were assigned to stretch, they
had a low risk of injury but if they were assigned not to stretch, the
injury risk was double those who kept stretching. It's this result that
most startlingly exhibits why people consider stretching to prevent injury.
This study shows that those who are comfortable with their pre-run
stretching routine should maintain it. They risk injury if they discontinue
their pre-run stretching. For runners comfortable without pre-run
stretching, they don't necessarily improve their injury protection by
starting a pre-run stretching routine.
Darby Thompson, the study statistician, commented, "With the number of
runners who contributed to this study, we have shown that the difference in
injury rates between those performing pre-run stretching and those who did
not is negligible. Although we identified other very important risk factors
(weight, prior injury, stopping a stretching routine), because this study
was specifically investigating the effect of pre-run stretching, other risk
factors may influence injury rates but were not identified. More studies
like this one should be conducted to confirm or refute the importance of
other risk factors."
For more information on the stretch study, please contact Alan Roth at
or 301-928-6314.
For more details or to read the clinical findings, visit www.usatf.org
About USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track and
field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF
encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, some of the most-watched
events of Olympic broadcasts, the #1 high school and junior high school
participatory sport and more than 30 million adult runners in the United
States.
For more information on USATF, visit www.usatf.org
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