The Stretching Mistake You're Probably Making
It's common for many people, especially when they're just starting
out, to feel sore for a day or two after
exercise.
Even Arnold Schwarzenegger was "feeling it" soon after finishing his first ever workout.
"The guys warned me that I'd get sore," he writes in Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder. "But it didn't seem to be having any effect. I thought I must be beyond that."
"The next morning I couldn't even lift my arm to comb my hair. Each time I tried, pain shot through every muscle in my shoulder and arm. I couldn't hold the comb. I tried to drink coffee and spilled it all over the table. I was helpless."
To prevent delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS for short), you've probably been told to do some stretching immediately
after exercise.
But does it really help?
Not according to a team of Danish researchers. They found that
stretching before and after exercise has no effect on muscle soreness.
Stretching exercises
Publishing their findings in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine
and Science in Sports, the researchers persuaded seven healthy
(but untrained) women to take part in two experiments.
• During the first experiment, the women exercised their
right quadriceps (the group of muscles in the front of your thigh)
to exhaustion. Ratings of muscle pain were taken for the next
seven days.
• In experiment two, the women performed the same type of
exercise. This time, however, they spent 90 seconds stretching
before and after exercise. Again, muscle pain was assessed for
seven days.
Contrary to popular belief, the results showed that stretching
had no effect on muscle soreness, which reached a peak
two days after exercise.
This isn't the only study to highlight the fact that stretching doesn't seem to do much as far as DOMS is concerned.
When a group of New Zealand researchers reviewed a number of muscle soreness studies, they found that stretching after exercise led to an average reduction in post-exercise soreness of just 2% — an effect that's likely to be of "no practical significance" for most people [2].
So, what actually causes the soreness?
A bout of unaccustomed or unusually intense exercise, particularly one that includes a lot of eccentric muscle actions, leads to inflammation — the same biological defense mechanism that causes the redness, swelling and pain if you cut a finger.
Inflammation is your body's response to injury and helps to start the process of repair and recovery. And one of the steps in this process is an increase in the production of immune cells, which reach a peak 24-48 hours after exercise [1, 4].
These cells then produce chemical substances that make the group IV pain receptors — which are responsible for the transmission of dull, aching pain signals — more sensitive.
The result?
Whenever you move, these pain receptors are stimulated. Because
they're far more sensitive to pain than normal, you end up feeling
sore.
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't perform any stretching exercises
after exercise. But if you're only doing it to ease muscle soreness,
there's little evidence to show it makes any real difference.
About the Author
 Christian Finn holds a master's degree in exercise science, is a certified personal trainer and has been featured on BBC TV and radio, as well as in Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Fit Pro, Zest and other popular fitness magazines.
If you want better, faster results from the time you spend in the gym, click here now for instant access to his step-by-step muscle-building and fat-burning workout routines.
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References
1. Armstrong, R.B. (1984). Mechanisms of exercise-induced delayed onset muscular soreness: a brief review. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 16, 529-38
2. Cheung, K., Hume, P., & Maxwell, L. (2003). Delayed onset muscle soreness : treatment strategies and performance factors. Sports Medicine, 33, 145-64
3. Lund, H., Vestergaard-Poulsen, P., Kanstrup, I.L., & Sejrsen,
P. (1998). The effect of passive stretching on delayed onset muscle
soreness, and other detrimental effects following eccentric exercise. Scandinavian
Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 8, 216-221
4. Stauber, W.T., Clarkson, P.M., Fritz, V.K., & Evans, W.J. (1990). Extracellular matrix disruption and pain after eccentric muscle action. Journal of Applied Physiology, 69, 868-874
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