Dynamic Stretching, Strength Training in Athletes, and Reducing Knee Pain
January 26, 2012 
1 Comment
This week’s stuff you should read has articles from Sweat Science, Bret Contreras, and Mike Robertson.
Dynamic Stretching and Running Performance
Sweat Science discusses more research on the debate of static versus dynamic stretching. Interesting study, I liked one of the first commenters, stating that “when I stretch before I run, I feel better at the beginning of my run.” I liked that comment and that is one of the main reasons I use various forms of stretching myself.
I prefer to prepare myself and my athletes to participate so that the beginning of their activity, wether or not it is running, throwing, swimming, or anything else, is not used to warm up. To me, that leads to less productivity and a high chance of injury – using competition to warm-up.
Probably a bigger issue but perhaps the debate is due to poor static stretching? Generally torquing your body, including areas that are hypermobile, is probably not the best idea. Would specific static stretching of tight areas combined with a general dynamic warm-up make more sense? This sounds like a future post here…
Considerations in Athletic Performance Enhancement Training: How Much Strength Do Our Athletes Need?
Bret Contreras shares a nice gues post from Robert A. Panariello MS, PT, ATC, CSCS on his website. I really respect Rob and enjoyed the article.
2 Keys to Less Knee Pain
Mike Robertson has a nice article on 2 simple ways to reduce knee pain. I don’t want to steal his thunder and give the 2 keys away, but I think his second point has a lot of validity. We often times try to treat or train around the symptoms, rather than try to clean up faulty movement patterns.
Nice post Mike. Interesting article about dynamic stretching and run performance. NISMAT did one of the original studies on the effects of calf stretching on running economy and found the same thing in terms of reducing economy. Always nice to see results replicated. Hope you are well! I personally never stretch before racing though I do spend some time doing some very simple drills which I will be posting on my site in the upcoming weeks. You would probably also enjoy a recent post that I wrote about “determining when an injured runner can resume training following a running related injury.” Would enjoy your feedback if you find the time to check it out.